Drivers Rave About Tollway

By LINDSAY WILKES-EDRINGTON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 16, 2007

TAMPA - It's been a year since the reversible lanes on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway opened to traffic, and transportation authority officials say daily use of the road has far exceeded expectations.

Talk to those who frequently drive on the reversible lanes, and it becomes obvious why they're so popular. Drivers are more than just appreciative of the road and the time it shaves off the commute between Brandon and Tampa. They're downright enthusiastic.

"It's probably the best thing that's ever happened here," said LaSchael Parks, who lives in Brandon and travels to Tampa daily to attend evening classes at South University near downtown. "There's no way I'd get there as fast as I do without it."

When the expressway opened July 18, the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority estimated that 6,000 vehicles would use the road each weekday by October. That prediction was close to reality: 5,989 vehicles traveled the reversible lanes each weekday that month.

A year later, about 16,000 vehicles pass under the toll gantries on any given weekday, authority spokeswoman Sue Chrzan said. Traffic headed toward Brandon is heavier than westbound traffic, partly because the lanes open eastbound over the weekend, she said.

The reversible lanes offer morning commuters a quick shot into downtown without truck traffic, toll booths, traffic signals or oncoming traffic. In the afternoon, the signage is changed and gates are adjusted for afternoon commuters heading toward Interstate 75 and Brandon.

During June alone, 367,923 vehicles used the lanes, generating about $550,000 in revenue from tolls paid by SunPass users and those who use the Pay-By-Plate program, which photographs license plates and then charges the drivers after each trip. The toll revenue goes toward operating and maintaining the nine-mile road and paying off bonds used to finance the project.

Daily traffic counts are 25 percent higher than what the authority expected, Chrzan said.

"That's even with the toll increase," she said, referring to the 50 cents tacked on to the per-trip toll in January to help repay the cost of a support pier that collapsed under an elevated portion of the road during construction in 2004. The collapse delayed the road's opening for a year and caused the original cost of about $300 million to swell to $420 million.

Chrzan said a lawsuit filed by the expressway authority in 2005 against the engineering firm that designed the piers, URS Corp., is in mediation.

Since the reversible lanes opened, she said, engineers have checked the piers monthly and found no problems.

Chrzan said she has heard few complaints about the road. The only grumbles, she said, were about the 60 mph speed limit initially set by the Florida Department of Transportation. Those disappeared after the DOT agreed to increase the limit to 65 mph about a month ago.

"What would anyone say is wrong with it?" asked Ron Russell, a contractor for Hillsborough County who drives the road at least four times a week. "It's just so easy."

Reporter Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington can be reached at (813) 259-7621 or lwilkes-edrington@tampatrib.com.