Construction on “Segment D” of Bruce B. Downs is expected to wrap up by the end of the year. But, recent changes have made some safety improvements amongst the maze of orange barricades for students walking and driving to and from Wharton High. (Photo: John C. Cotey)
Traffic snarls continue to frustrate New Tampa drivers, as road construction is moving forward on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., but isn’t quite complete yet.
A persistent trouble spot on BBD is in front of Wharton High, where delays get particularly lengthy during morning drop-off and after school lets out.
The intersection of BBD and Oak Preserve Blvd. in front of Live Oak Preserve, at the north end of the high school, where student drivers and parents enter and exit the school, has drawn a lot of complaints.
“That intersection is ridiculous during drop-off,” said parent Paula Olson in a letter to Tampa City Council member Luis Viera. “People are turning left out of the wrong lanes, people are going straight from multiple lanes because they don’t want to wait — all with new student drivers in the mix.”
Olson and others voiced concern that while they have heard the situation will be better when the construction has been completed, something needed to change immediately.
Viera says he has heard his constituent complaints. Because students also are walking in that area, he says the matter is of particular importance. “Bruce B. Downs is a is a county road, not a city road,” says Viera, “so it’s a little bit out of my jurisdiction, but I jumped on it anyway.”
In road construction terms, that portion of BBD is part of “Segment D” – a 1.44-mile stretch from Pebble Creek Dr. to County Line Rd. It is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
Construction on Segment D began in October of 2016, when it was a four-lane divided roadway, and it will soon be an eight-lane divided roadway with a landscaped median, sidewalks, a multi-use path and upgraded traffic signals.
But although completion of the roadway portion should be as early as November, Viera says he set up a meeting with representatives from Hillsborough County to figure out what could be done quickly.
He reports that four issues were agreed to at this meeting with the county on Sept. 21, and have since been implemented.
First, an off-duty law enforcement officer now assists with directing traffic during the morning hours while students are going to school.
Viera says that three additional issues relate directly to pedestrian safety in the crosswalk across BBD.
The timing on the crosswalk has been changed to allow for more time for students and others to cross from Live Oak to get to the school.
Striping on the pavement was enhanced to more clearly mark the pathway.
It also was discovered that the pedestrian buttons were sticking, so that problem also was corrected.
Viera says this is a great example of different governmental entities working together across jurisdictional boundaries to get issues resolved for local residents.
Earlier this year in a school-wide email and phone call, Wharton principal Mike Rowan reminded parents that all students attending the school are provided transportation by bus, no matter the distance they live from school.
This is an exception to the Hillsborough County School District policy, which typically offers buses only for students who live more than 2 miles away from school. However, busing is offered at Wharton due to the “hazardous conditions” presented by roadway construction and then, once construction is complete, an eight-lane road.
“It has certainly been a challenging situation living through the entire BBD expansion project,” says Olson, who says she has lived in New Tampa for 17 years. She calls the changes “positive” and says she was pleased to see them implemented.
“Personally,” she adds, “I will just be happy when this project is completed, which hopefully will be soon.”
It’s easy to recognize the progress being made on the widening of Segment D of Bruce B. Downs Blvd. (above). The final phase of the BBD widening is expected to be completed before the end of 2018.
The seemingly never-ending widening of Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., a project talked about and debated — and even cursed — for two decades, could be “substantially” finished by the end of October 2018.
While the mounds of dirt, yellow construction trucks working behind orange traffic barrels and the winding roads with sometimes confusing lane switches seem to contradict that claim, Hillsborough County’s Public Works Department says that all eight lanes of Segment D — the last of the four segments of the BBD project — will be operational in October.
That doesn’t preclude periodic daytime lane closures, as contractors complete punch list items, but the end, thankfully, is finally near.
The final full completion of the segment is scheduled for sometime in November.
The widening of Segment D — a 1.44-mile stretch from Pebble Creek Dr. to County Line Rd. — from a 4-lane divided roadway to an 8-lane divided roadway also will include a landscaped median, sidewalks, a multi-use path and upgraded traffic signals.
The final segment of BBD widening began construction in October of 2016.
According to the county’s website, Segment D’s cost was estimated at $24 million, which was funded through the Public Works Transportation Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and was awarded $5 million from the Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP) by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).
Segment A, which was once the most congested area of BBD and extends from Bearss Ave. to Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms, was a $54-million project that wrapped up last year.
Segments B and C, which bracket the work that was done around the same time I-75 was widened, were considered the most difficult (and costly) of the segments geographically, but were completed together first.
The two inside southbound lanes of Segment D have been completed, and plans were to finish the two outside northbound lanes, and then shift traffic by the end of August.
When the traffic shift has been completed, work will begin to complete the two inside turn lanes, as well as the median northbound and southbound.
As we reported last issue, county engineers recently showed results of a signal-timing project they say has improved traffic on BBD (and its side roads) south of Cross Creek Blvd., and said when the construction is done, some of those same signal-timing improvements will be applied to Segment D.
Also, a new traffic signal has been added at the intersection of BBDs and Trout Creek Dr. (just north of the Burger 21) in an effort to alleviate congestion off the side roads in that area. That signal was not yet operational at our press time.
While residents have complained about perceived inactivity on BBD at most of the traffic-related townhalls and forums held in New Tampa the past year, all of the previous segments had their own challenges. The completion of Segment D has had to overcome some construction and weather issues that have delayed progress at times.
Last year, Hurricane Irma (and other lesser storms) dumped enormous amounts of rain on the New Tampa area, and the usual summer-time showers this year also have provided some delays.
“The toughest aspects of the project so far have been the weather impacts,” wrote the county’s Public Works Department, responding to questions from the Neighborhood News. “All construction projects must utilize temporary drainage measures to address the rain. This project is unique because the installation of the main drainage line must connect to the adjacent drainage lines on the south end of the project first, to allow the entire project to drain properly.”
While the Segment D project is designed with the temporary drainage measures in place to handle the rain, “unusually quick and heavy” rains can overwhelm the drainage system, making it unable to drain the water from the roadway and causing backups.
The project also has faced obstacles like locating underground utilities, which in most cases can be traced as a straight line, but there are unexpected deviations that required a redesign.
“When coordinating multiple utility companies to install, relocate, and remove, it is challenging, especially when the majority of this work is completed by other companies all trying to fit in narrow areas,” the county says.
But, the delays haven’t been enough to change the much-anticipated completion date, which remains the end of 2018. The end of a two-decades-long wait draws ever closer.
To appreciate what local drivers endure every day and to find ways to fix our traffic problems, traffic engineer Jerry Wentzel had a computer-equipped car make more than 180 runs driving the speed limit through the Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. corridor in New Tampa collecting data.
And, perhaps, a few choice words by those frustrated that the car was driving the speed limit.
“If you did see the car, I hope you’re not the people that were giving us obscene gestures,” Wentzel joked. “A lot of drivers in your community don’t think 45 is the right speed limit.”
But, by the end of his presentation to roughly 50 people at Compton Park in Tampa Palms on July 25, the only gesture Wentzel — the Southeast Regional manager for DKS, a transportation planning and engineering firm that recently completed a traffic light study in New Tampa — received was a thumbs up.
Wentzel and Vik Bhide, the chief traffic management engineer for the City of Tampa, told an audience of New Tampa residents, as well as a handful of political hopefuls that not only are changes in the traffic light cycles speeding things up, plans for three additional turn-only signals will continue to ease congestion.
“You should be able to recognize there has already been an improvement,” said Wentzel.
The traffic light study was hatched to address a number of concerns, primarily helping move traffic through side streets like Cross Creek Blvd., Amberly Dr. and Tampa Palms Blvd. onto and off of BBD and facilitating a steady traffic flow during peak hours that would make the roads safer, not just for cars but for cyclists and pedestrians as well.
The lights are also now timed to favor busier traffic at certain times. For example, in the morning, the lights will favor southbound traffic, and in the evening, they will favor northbound traffic.
“In the past….BBD was one giant green (light),” Bhide said. “You were running four-and-a-half-minute cycles. If you were on Bruce B. Downs and got the first green light, you were great. If you were on a side street, you were waiting for a very long time. Our goal was to reduce the delay for everyone.”
Three corridors were studied for improvements in the weekday a.m., midday and p.m. hours, as well as Saturday morning and evening hours. The Saturday results were applied to Sunday, which was not specifically studied.
“In some cases, the signals were really way off,” said Wentzel. “The timings were changed dramatically.”
The four-mile stretch from I-75 to E. Bearss Ave., which has nine traffic signals, saw the largest improvements.
According to the study, by recalibrating the cycles of the signals from an average of 222 seconds (3:42) to 146 seconds (2:26), the average delay was reduced from 139 seconds (2:19) to 73 seconds, or 1:13.
The BBD widening project allowed weekday PM cycle lengths to be reduced from 254 seconds (4:14) to 130 (2:10).
“Because it’s now four lanes, it allowed us to reduce the cycle length and give more time to the side streets and cut the delay for coming off the side streets,” Wentzel said.
The changes also helped increase the average travel speed along BBD from 31.6 miles per hour to 37.6 mph, suggesting a smoother flow of traffic. The biggest increases were seen in the weekday midday hours (31.5 to 39 mph) and Saturday p.m. hours (32 to 43).
“That’s pretty dramatic,” Wentzel said. “People in that corridor should feel the changes, should be driving better, stopping less and spending a lot less time in traffic.”
Requiring minor tweaks in the cycle lengths was the corridor along Cross Creek Blvd. between BBD and Morris Bridge Rd. Improvements there helped reduce the average delay for drivers by 37 percent. Delays getting off the side streets were not as much of an issue, so the improvements focused on the east-west movement along Cross Creek Blvd.
“From one end to the other was 134 seconds (2:14), now down to 85 seconds (1:25),” Wentzel said. “That’s a pretty big reduction and something the average person should feel. We felt those were good results, very positive results.”
The third corridor studied, BBD from Cross Creek Blvd. to I-75, was the trickiest, Wentzel said.
While the signals clearly favored BBD traffic, it did not recognize that 40 percent of the traffic in the corridor was coming off Cross Creek Blvd. The result has been significantly longer cycle times for traffic turning south onto BBD from Cross Creek. That has slowed the average speed in that corridor by 1 percent and increased the average delay by 10 percent, numbers that Wentzel called insignificant.
Statistics from study regarding signal timing changes at the Cross Creek/BBD Intersection (Graphic Design: Gavin Olsen)
“If you look at the study results, it didn’t really benefit BBD traffic, because the intention was to help Cross Creek,” he said.
While the study may produce small numbers measured in seconds and minutes, when you multiply that one car by days and then times per month, you get a bigger, brighter picture (see graphic above).
“The cumulative savings to the community are significant, and to the environment are significant” Bhide said.
Bhide also said the light signal changes also will benefit bicyclists and pedestrians, who tend to take risks crossing when they are stuck at long cycles favoring BBD.
Combined with the significant amount of time saved by motorists, as well as the environmental benefits, Bhide said this light study was a success.
“We don’t always see these kind of dramatic results from signal changes,” he said. “This just happened to be a pretty good story for us to tell.”
Right-Turn Signals To Be Added!
In addition to the recently completed traffic light changes, right-turn signals will be installed at northbound BBD and Cross Creek Blvd., as well as eastbound Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. and BBD (where p.m. traffic from the business campuses behind the AMC Highwoods movie theater complex can stretch on and on) over the next 80-90 days.
An Aerial Shot of the Cross Creek & Bruce B Downs Blvd. Intersection in New Tampa. (Photo: Eagle Fly Media)
Both lanes are choke points during peak traffic hours in the evening, and the BBD/Cross Creek Blvd. location in particular has drawn the ire of many local residents.
“We’ve done what we can with signal timing, but the right turns could be going at the same time the lefts are going if we had a signal for it,” Wentzel said.
As for a third left turn lane off Cross Creek Blvd., Wentzel and Bhide both said that’s just a matter of time, and money. While Bhide works for the city, that intersection is a county asset that the city maintains, per an interlocal agreement.
“We have talked to the county about putting that as a project in their capital improvement plan, and tentatively, they are reviewing that and will try to get it funded in the next few years,” Bhide said.
The traffic signal study was hosted by the New Tampa Council (NTC). Along with District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera, who founded the NTC, the crowd also included a handful of political candidates running for seats, either in the upcoming “mid-term” elections in August and November, or in March 2019, that will represent New Tampa — Angela Birdsong (running for Hillsborough County Commissioner District 2), Joseph Caetano and Joe Citro (Tampa City Council Dist. 1) and Fentrice Driskell, who is running against incumbent Shawn Harrison for the Florida House of Representatives Dist. 63 seat.
Construction continues along Bruce B. Downs Blvd. in Tampa Palms, but it may not be the last of it for southern Tampa Palms, even after the current project wraps in 2017.
By Matt Wiley
Construction has been steadily increasing along Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. in New Tampa between E. Bearss Ave. and Palm Springs Blvd. in Tampa Palms (also known as BBD “Segment A”) during the past several months. However, the intersection of BBD and E. Bearss Ave. won’t be completely improved when the BBD “Segment A” project has been completed.Continue reading
After years of construction, I-75 may soon finally be rid of the orange cones and barrels in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel in just a few months.Continue reading
