Cost sharing agreed for I-4 Crosstown Connector in Tampa - tolls after all along with a finance-build RFP (UPDATED)

Three Florida agencies have agreed on a cost sharing plan for the $600m Connector roadways in the Ybor City area between the I-4 and the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa. The Tampa Hillsborough (Toll) Expressway Authority will contribute $45m to construction costs and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise $80m, while the Florida DOT will put in $475m. This is a staff level agreement, which still has to be endorsed by agency boards.

The Connector spans only 1500m (5,000ft) between I-4 and the Crosstown Expressway but the curving ramps and widening for merge and diverge lanes on both connected highways adds considerably to the work involved.

The Connector is entirely elevated and is essentially a pair of integrated interchanges with up to six 2 lane roadway ramps configured to minimize weaving problems. Part of the complexity comes from dedicated truck roadways intended for trucks moving between the Port of Tampa and I-4.

At the southern end of the Connector no fewer than five ramps curve off westward into the region of the Expressway. Further destinations are pre-selected and traffic put in separate roadways. The trucks only roadways (truckways) constitute two of the five ramps – to and from the downtown and port area.

The project is divided into:

- S movement which connects the Crosstown west with the I-4 east

- Z movement connecting the Crosstown east with the I-4 west

- truck lanes serving trucks from I-4 east and west to and from the Port of Tampa and the south of the downtown area, a short distance west along the Crosstown Expressway

The S-movement and truck lanes will be built first starting 2010 and the Z-Movements are planned for construction starting 2013. Estimated cost for full project is $600m.

Finance-build project

At one point the Z-movements were going to be indefinitiely deferred for future funding. Now the plan is to have the project staged so that the same crews and equipment can move onto building the Z-movement after the first two stages are nearing completion.

Project manager at FDOT Adam Perez tells us the plan is now to seek bids for a finance-build plan in which the private sector provides short-term financial bridging to allow the whole project to be built as a single staged project. (REVISED 10-19)

All electronic tolling (AET)

Tolls will be imposed on all traffic using the facility. Tolling will be all-electronic - a combination of transponder (SunPass brand) and video at highway speed.

Tolling will occur at a toll point between 3rd and 4th Avenues where the roadway has widened out into separate truck and mixed traffic lanes in order to be able to set toll rates by destination. (REVISED 10-19 NOTE: the toll point will be to the south of where we have "tolling point?" marked on the map nearby.)

Perez says the toll equipment will be on two gantry structures one spanning each direction of traffic. They will each span three roadways of 2 lanes each plus shoulders. They will be around 50m (160ft) long. (REVISED 2007-10-20)

Still to be resolved is whether the Turnpike or the Expressway Authority do tolling. or if they'll split it between them.

Construction

Design work is being done to encourage competition between different bridging technologies:

The bidders will have 4 options:

- steel plate girder

- segmental concrete

- steel plate girder on the I-4 and Crosstown Exwy ends and bulb-T prefabricated concrete beam along the
north-south viaduct

- segmental concrete box girder on the I-4 and Crosstown Exwy ends with bulb-T along the north-south viaduct

Perez says: "This will promote competition and hopefully provide for a better bid price
overall."

Objective, mission, rationale, purpose

The project is designed to provide efficient and speedy connections to the port and downtown from the north and between the Expressway and I-4 taking traffic out of the local streets of Ybor City - an attractive historic area.

I-4 has just been widened recently to 3+3 lanes and the Crosstown Expressway also known as the Lee Roy Selman Expressway is 2/3/2 lanes the central three lanes being reversible and mostly elevated bridging. Through the area of the planned Connector interchange however the three express lanes are down at ground level in anticipation of the Connector's ramps.

On, then off, now on again for tolling

The Connector has been in active planning for five or six years. At first it was a toll authority project. Then with the promise by Don Young of the US House transportation committee to support it with federal funds only as a free road it was dropped by THEA and taken up by Florida DOT. Young's federal money never came through so now it is being funded by a mix of state taxes and toll financing.

Right of way acquisition is well advanced and design is nearly two-third complete. The plan is to let construction contracts in 2009 for construction in 2010.

Precedents

The truck-only roadways in the Tampa project are among the first in the US. The I-5 north of Los Angeles has an interchange where trucks are separated.

The Southern California Association of Governments has been pushing for the most ambitious truckway system in the US for the Los Angeles area - from the port of LA and Long Beach north up I-710 to near downtown, then out west on CA60, and northeast on I-15 to the Nevada border.

The New Jersey Turnpike in its 4 roadway configuration bars trucks from using the two center roadways but the outer roadways mixes trucks and cars.

Truck-only roadways or truckways are in planning on the westside of Atlanta on I-285 and northwest up I-75, as the beginning of a truckway network.

They were proposed and rejected for I-81 in Virginia.

They are under study on I-70 in a bunch of states from Kansas to Ohio.

Truckways are also contemplated for Miami port-to-airport area, and in the Chicago area.

http://mytbi.com/urs/content/Design/I4-CrosstownConnector/index.asp

TOLLROADSnews 2007-10-17 REVISED 2007-10-19 1020