Opinion

Buildable

TBO.com
Published: November 17, 2012

Pasco County Growth Management Administrator Richard Gehring used the word above to describe an elevated roadway that one day might run down the middle of the State Road 54-56 corridor across southern Pasco, from Holiday to Zephyrhills. The county commission has given the go-ahead to hiring a consultant to study the feasibility of building the 33-mile-long toll road, which might be similar in design to Hillsborough County's Lee Roy Selmon Expressway. We'll say this for the Pasco County leaders, they aren't adverse to — in concept, at least — launching another lengthy fight that could descend into a regulatory nightmare.

We say this because Pasco County has spent fruitless years seeking regulatory approval for the Ridge Road extension, a relatively simple stretch of asphalt that would link the eastern end of Ridge Road, in the Moon Lake-River Ridge area, with the Suncoast Parkway, and later U.S. 41. We think building the Ridge Road extension is a good idea and agree the county should continue trying to get the project permitted, all the headaches notwithstanding.

We're not saying the elevated toll road down the S.R. 54-56 corridor is a bad idea. It would, however, be a much more costly proposition. So we like Gehring's suggestion that the toll road could be privately funded and operated. If the county can find investors willing to put their own capital at risk, who are we to say no?

The nay-saying we worry about would come from activists and regulators. That could be another matter entirely.