BBD ‘Segment A’ Construction Wearing Down Businesses, As Well As Drivers
Traffic is jammed, as a section of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. just north of Bearss Ave. resembles a dusty obstacle course with barriers and tall mounds of rock and dirt everywhere. Despite a steady flow of cars, it’s a slow Friday afternoon amidst the cuts of beef and fish at the Land & Sea Market in the Oak Ramble Plaza shopping center.
Carlos Otero has managed Land & Sea for 16 years, and says that in the last few months, business has fallen as the road outside his shop remains under construction. He’s not alone, as neighboring business owners in the area have expressed frustration at the pace of the widening of BBD Segment A – from Bearss Ave. to Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms – from a divided four- and six-lane road to a divided eight-lane road.
“The workers are not fast,’’ says Otero, who estimates his business is down 50 percent the past two months. “You come in every day, and it is the same. It doesn’t seem like there is any progress. And, people who come in, they say the same thing.”
Acropolis Greek Taverna general manager Tarek Armoush agrees.
“It’s definitely frustrating,’’ says Armoush, who helped open the New Tampa Acropolis location in the same Oak Ramble Plaza in 2007. “The biggest frustration is that I don’t feel like they have put the construction in (high gear). I see days where there is one worker out there, maybe two. It just seems they could speed this up.”
Segment A, which spans 3.5 miles and has a pricetag of about $60-million, is the third of a four-segment project that will ultimately, finally transform New Tampa’s congested main artery from four and six lanes into eight, all the way from Bearss Ave. to County Line Rd.
Segment A construction includes a 5-6 ft. sidewalk on the west wide of BBD, and a 10-ft.-wide multi-use path on the east side. Also, the southbound side of the small bridge that crosses over Cypress Creek (between the Landmark at Grayson Park apartments and Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms) has been widened, and a new four-lane bridge on the northbound side of BBD has been constructed.
Hillsborough’s Public Works Dept.’s project manager David Vogel says that while he understands your frustration, the perception that work is not being conducted as quickly as possible is wrong. Much of the work is done underground, he says — with utilities, electrical and water — and is not visible to the everyday passerby.
“There’s actually a lot going on,’’ he says, adding that Segment A — which was delayed from a spring 2017 finish to an August 2017 finish because of an elevation issue in one of the critical areas of construction — is smoothly moving forward.
That doesn’t mean the effects aren’t being felt, however. Businesses have about another year of construction in that area to look forward to, and Otero and others wonder how they will weather another year of roadwork.
Even successful businesses like Acropolis, Land & Sea and Mr. Dunderbak’s, also located in the Oak Ramble center, have seen changes in their bottom lines.
“We were down last month,’’ according to Mr. Dunderbak’s owner J.B. Ellis, “and we haven’t been down…ever.”
That’s significant for a business that has been at its current location since 2009, when it moved from the University Mall on Fowler Ave. The percentage loss may have been miniscule compared to what Mr. Dunderbak’s brings in yearly, but Ellis is concerned about a possible trend. A one-month loss is one thing, but multiply that by 11 or 12 months and it would leave a much bigger mark.
“The first half, I thought they did a great job,’’ Ellis says. “I watched them build that bridge in no time. I was thoroughly impressed. But, it doesn’t feel like much is being done these days.”
Ellis says there are still roads in and out of the Oak Ramble center, but they have changed to accommodate construction. You can’t turn left out of Oak Ramble, and if you turn right, it’s a one-mile drive up to Amberly Dr. before you can make a U-turn. Ellis says the entire area is one big car accident waiting to happen.
Changing travel patterns, the plethora of construction equipment and barriers and the congestion caused by it all is a deterrent to many customers who might otherwise stop. Currently, there is a winding 10-foot mound of rocks and dirt roadside obscuring Acropolis (see photo below) and other businesses up and down BBD from drivers. “Another year of this? Seriously?,’’ asks Ellis.
Across from BBD, Chevron gas station manager Danny Piguave said the construction has had a “lot of effect” on business.
Chevron was a Shell station before a massive overhaul that included new pumps and a redesigned store. However, for the last year, the gas station’s entrance has been a dirt road with barricades and sometimes feels like ground zero for all the construction, Piguave says.
“Somedays, it looks like there’s no way in,’’ he adds. And, summer rains often reduced the entrance to a muddy patch. “Who wants to drive over that?”
When the gas station was upgraded, Aguave said the expectation was that there would be an 18-20 percent increase in business. But, that number isn’t being close to being realized at the moment.
“It’s another year of this I’m worried about,’’ he says.
Rose O’Berry, whose A Special Rose florist shop is attached to the Chevron, says her walk-in business is down 50 percent. She does most of her sales through the internet these days. “We have to, there’s no choice,’’ she says.
O’Berry also says that customers are complaining, as getting out and then back into traffic is a chore many are just unwilling to endure. “I just sat in traffic for half-an-hour just leaving Tampa Palms,’’ one recently told her.
“It feels like they just keep digging right in front of us, like they have dug up the same area three times’’ O’Berry says. “It’s been like this almost a year now.”
Vogel says he doesn’t recall if that’s the case, but doesn’t doubt O’Berry. “That may be true,’’ he says. “You do utilities, then you do drainage work, then you have to dig back in for another utility. The underground work always looks like there’s no progress being made.” But, there is. While Vogel sympathizes with local businesses and drivers, he says there is no way to widen a road without creating a disturbance.
“We do everything we can to mitigate the effects, but can’t we eliminate them,’’ he says. “All we can ask is that they be patient, it will get better. Eventually, it will be easier for people to access their businesses.”
Local residents have been waiting more than 20 years for the main thoroughfare through New Tampa to be widened from a four- and six-lane divided roadway to an eight-lane divided roadway to relieve the area’s infamous traffic congestion. And, while it may be premature to say there’s a light at the end of the, well, Boulevard, local residents are a step closer to Bruce B. Downs (BBD) finally being “Bruce B. Done.”
The same night that work began on Segment D, the county held a pre-construction meeting in the Paul R. Wharton High auditorium about widening BBD. If you think New Tampa is tired of talking about the traffic on BBD, consider this: the county set up three stands showing the area of construction, but the meeting was attended by only a dozen or residents.
