Tampa Pike to do Central Reversible El

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Exwy Auth (THCEA) has URSGWC doing preliminary design for an innovative 2-lane reversible roadway to be elevated on T-posts in the median of quite a distance of its 22km (14-mi) Crosstown Exwy. The project is estimated to cost about $200m to build. The Crosstown runs parallel with, and quite close to I-4 through downtown Tampa, but the turnpike is gaining traffic with better connections into Brandon, a growing area on the eastern part of the built area. The T-post design with standardized segmental box girder construction is cheaper than the acquisition of right-of-way and interchange reconstruction needed to expand outward. Cost is $4.5m/lane-km ($7m/lane-mi).