Opinion

Going up?

TBO.com
Published: February 20, 2013

We would bet some people who heard the idea of building an elevated toll road down the middle of the State Road 54 thought whoever had come up with the proposal had taken leave of his or her senses. A report presented last week to the Pasco County Metropolitan Planning Organization, however, suggested such a toll road is not only feasible — it may provide the most viable link between southern Pasco County and the regional job centers in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties among the available alternatives.

Mike Coleman, the director of transportation development and planning for Jacksonville-based consulting firm RS&H, said a four-lane elevated toll road could be built down the middle of State Road 54 for about $2 billion. Coleman said one of the alternatives, light rail, wouldn't attract enough riders, only about 4,500 a day, to justify the cost. The other alternatives, some form of bus service, also would have too few riders, perhaps only 4,000 or so a day, to justify the disruption to State Road 54 traffic.

The Pasco toll road, which would have an interchange linking it to a similar toll road down Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, would handle 67,000 to 80,000 vehicle trips a day.

The trick will be finding some investor to finance the toll road project in exchange for a cut of the toll revenue. No one is proposing spending public funds on it. As Pasco Commissioner Ted Schrader put it during the MPO meeting, "The private sector will tell us if it's a worthy project." Indeed.