Is $1.8 billion expressway the answer to south Hillsborough traffic woes?
Relief for commuter traffic congestion in southern Hillsborough County may come from the air, not from the ground.
And it still could be decades away.
The idea is to extend the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway for 10 miles from its current eastern end in Brandon to Big Bend Road in Riverview. The elevated highway would be built above the median of U.S. 301.
The ambitious plan carries a preliminary cost estimate of $1.8 billion, based on similar construction projects in 2022. The expense would be covered by borrowed money paid off by toll-paying motorists.
The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, which owns and operates the 15-mile Lee Roy Selmon Expressway between South Tampa and Brandon, cautioned that “more accurate cost estimates and alternatives” would be determined in a project development and environmental study.
The elevated concept mirrors the 2-year-old Selmon West Extension, a 1.9-mile toll bridge built above Gandy Boulevard, connecting the south end of the Gandy Bridge to Brandon. That elevated highway cost $230 million.
A preliminary analysis of the latest proposal is to be presented Thursday to the Hillsborough County Commission. Commissioner Michael Owen, noting growth in unincorporated Hillsborough is “just out of hand,” asked for the study in April.
“It’s an undeniable fact that our highway system is the backbone of our economy and job creation. We lose sight of that basic fact and I guarantee that you will lose the economic edge in the Tampa Bay region,” Owen said then. “We have got to create some type of relief for (Interstate) 75 and east and south county as well as cross-town connections. The folks in my county (district), we’re just choked.”
A preliminary study from the Florida Department of Transportation, Hillsborough County and the expressway authority, projects the 10-mile Selmon Expressway extension, plus added lanes to Interstate 75, would reduce afternoon travel time from downtown Tampa to Gibsonton Drive by 30 minutes.
It broke the project into three phases and costs: The current expressway to Bloomingdale Avenue, $566 million; Bloomingdale Avenue to Gibsonton Drive, $545 million; and Gibsonton Drive to Big Bend Road, $695 million.
The extended Selmon Expressway also could produce a safer driving environment. The preliminary study did not include a safety component, but it noted the number of accidents on Gandy Boulevard dropped 22% between 2018 and 2022 coinciding with the opening of the Selmon Extension West.
East-west traffic problems, however, won’t be eliminated by a new highway. Even with an elevated expressway extended to Riverview, a wider I-75 and completion of the widening of Lithia Pinecrest Road, both East Lumsden Road and Bloomingdale Avenue will be over capacity, the study projected.
The next steps could be commission requests to the expressway authority to conduct a project development and environmental study that could take up to 24 months or a detailed economic study that would take a year. Commissioners also could ask the Transportation Planning Organization to add the project to its 2050 long-term transportation plan that is under development and scheduled to be approved in 2024.
“We would love to help solve the problems down there” in south Hillsborough, Greg Slater, CEO of the expressway authority, said through a spokesperson.
Separately, the authority is working on a $250 million expansion of the Selmon Expressway between Himes and Florida avenues. It will widen the highway from four to six lanes, and construction is expected to be finished in 2029.
In south county, the I-75 interchange at Big Bend Road already is undergoing an $81.7 million rebuild funded by the county, state and federal governments. The state’s long-range plan also calls for a $2.6 billion expansion of I-75 through Hillsborough County, adding two express lanes in each direction between Manatee County and Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in New Tampa.
