Tampa

Miami Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is claiming $2,619,000 in liquidated damages (LDs or penalties) from Electronic Transaction Consultants Corporation (ETCC) for failure to deliver new toll systems by contract dates. Damages continue to accrue at $6,500/day, MDX says, until the work is done.

Regional toll authority buyouts of state-owned tollroads are being proposed as an alternative to Florida DOT moves to take over regional toll authorities. The Tampa Chamber of Commerce and other local groups are proposing a "public partnership" in which they'd pay Florida DOT and the state Turnpike Enterprise an upfront fee in return for their regional tollroads.

Tampa Expressway Authority chief exec Joe Waggoner says all-electronic toll (AET) collection is "going well." They ended cash collection at the Tampa Hillsborough County's Selmon Expressway Sept 17 last year and now have the familiar AET combination of transponder tolls and license plate image based billing.

The last cash tolls were to be collected in the early hours of Saturday morning (Sept 18) on the Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa Florida. The planned conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET) began at 9.30pm Friday night with just one cash lane each direction and the beginning of license plate toll collection in the central lanes.

According to plans the conversion was to be complete buy 4:30am Saturday.

The Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa will cease cash toll collection in the autumn. September is the target month for the conversion to all-electronic tolling (AET) by the east-west tollroads's operator Tampa Hillsboro County Expressway Authority (THEA).

58 toll collectors are being laid off.

In the artsy, historic Ybor City area of Tampa less than two miles (3km) northeast of downtown Tampa construction has begun of the I-4/Selmon Crosstown Expressway Connector. It is in essence  an elaborate interchange between the two parallel highways at a point where they are less than a mile - 1400m or 4570ft (0.86 miles) apart, measuring them from the centerline of each roadway reservation.

Tampa Hillsboro (Toll) Expressway Authority (THEA) say they've settled with URS' insurer on $74,750,000 in compensation for flawed design work revealed in a collapse of their Selmon Expressway elevated ('El') while under construction in April 2004.

Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) have set July 2010 for the end of cash collection on their Selmon Expressway also known as the Crosstown. They are featuring the decision - made in principle more than a year back - and the date on their website at http://www.tampa-xway.com/ORTComingSoon.html

Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority (THEA) have formally released Figg Engineering from liability in the protracted litigation over responsibility for the collapse of a pier on the Reversible Express Lanes during construction in April 2004. After the collapse of one pier  another was found to have dropped a few inches.

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.