Gandy- A Better Boulevard

[LuvHighrisers]

The only businesses that MIGHT be adversely affected would be gas stations and fast food places...the rest would benefit from getting all that transit traffic off of Gandy. I hope they build something. It is ridiculous the way it is now.

[HARTride 2012]

Well, here it is, the rendering of what the bridge will look like.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/apr...an/news-metro/



Compare it to the REL on the Selmon-Crosstown...



FULL PRESENTATION
http://www.tampa-xway.com/documents/...esentation.pdf

[I-275westcoastfl]

Originally Posted by HARTride 2012

Jim Kotsiviras owns several shopping centers on the boulevard and said business properties are valued by how high the traffic count is on the roadway.

"If you're going to take all the traffic out with this thing, you might as well buy all the properties because there are no businesses under a bridge," he said.

Sure!! Maybe then instead of a pathetic two lane bridge we can get a freeway! The render looks good, might benefit the area! This just proves how Tampa Bay is filled with idiot residents and business owners.

[HARTride 2012]

Exactly! I think many of these people also have that "small town" mentality. They think all thier business will go away with this bridge. Some of the residents who are still opposed to the proposal likely still think the bridge is unsightly, noisy, and will cause their property values to plummet.

[I-275westcoastfl]

If anything if they built an elevated highway that went both directions, Gandy would be one of the few roads in Tampa with lower traffic. The residents could now easily go the stores along Gandy.

[HARTride 2012]

It could also mean an attractive reason for Aldi to set up shop "cough" former Winn Dixie space "cough".

[I-275westcoastfl]

Exactly, we need more Aldi's around here, just a great store!

[HARTride 2012]

It would definitely be beneficial to South Tampa and would give Publix a good run for their money.

I also think traffic congestion will be significantly reduced, thus allowing people who want to stop in to the businesses to do so more freely. This should hopefully increase business along Gandy. Something these crybabies fail to realize. They continue to think the bridge will have exactly the opposite effect.

[HARTride 2012]

Elevated toll road may wipe out Gandy Boulevard beautification work

In Print: Friday, May 1, 2009

GANDY — New landscaping and other massive beautification efforts along Gandy Boulevard could be destroyed if a proposed elevated toll road becomes reality — a situation that some say would throw away taxpayer money during rough economic times.

The Florida Department of Transportation embarked on a $20 million project in January 2008 to widen and landscape Gandy, making it a four-lane divided highway between Dale Mabry and the Gandy Bridge.

Workers are nearing the end of the project, which includes a median 30 feet wide with $162,000 worth of landscaping and a $121,000 irrigation system. Another $102,000 is going toward decorative crosswalks and more than $1.1 million for "aesthetic lighting" on both sides of the street. The work is expected to be completed late this summer.

But another agency — the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority — said last month it will consider building a two-lane elevated toll road above Gandy's new median. The overpass would connect the Tampa side of the bridge to the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway, possibly within five years.

That would require building support piers in the new median, among other construction work that could turn fresh landscaping to rubble and force those decorative lights to shine amid the concrete pilings of a roadway.

Expressway authority spokeswoman Susan Chrzan said it's impossible to know how much of the DOT work might be damaged.

"We haven't got to that level of detail at all," she said. "We will try to save everything we can. We are looking at costs all the time."

The cost of elevated lanes, estimated at $112 million to $138 million, would be paid by the expressway authority, which finances its work with tolls.

Opponents of the overpass — many of them business owners who fear it would eliminate drive-by customers — say building in the median would waste tax dollars at a time when government agencies are slashing services due to budget shortfalls.

A few have speculated that the DOT and the expressway authority have worked together to build the elevated toll road, a long talked-about project that residents have shot down in the past.

"The expressway authority has been trying to do this for years," said St. Petersburg resident Donna Miller, who has commercial real estate interests on Gandy. Now, she said, "the infrastructure has been paid at taxpayer expenses."

As part of the DOT's project, utility and drainage improvements were moved to each side of Gandy, said DOT spokeswoman Kristen Carson.

The goal, she said, was "maximizing the DOT's right-of-way, so we are not precluding future improvements."

The wide median, which replaced a turn lane on Gandy, is primarily a safety feature to control access across oncoming traffic, Carson said. Even with the elevated toll road rising from the median, she said, that safety function would remain intact.

The DOT supports the proposal for elevated lanes, Carson said. If it goes forward, "the expressway authority would be responsible to pay for the new project, but we would not insist on any money back," she said. "The elevated project will continue to be coordinated to minimize expenditures and changes to the extent possible."

Both the DOT and the expressway authority have talked of building a toll road in the area for years.

The DOT considered building elevated lanes on the north side of Gandy as far back as 2000. The plan was scrapped amid protest from surrounding residents and business owners.

Former expressway authority executive director Pat McCue proposed erecting elevated lanes above the median in 2002. That plan was shelved as the agency concentrated on a longer elevated segment of reversible lanes east of downtown to Brandon.

Then in June, expressway authority board members approved a yearlong, $1 million process to begin planning some kind of connector linking the Selmon Expressway with the Gandy Bridge. By then, the DOT project was already under way.

The expressway authority unveiled the most recent plan in mid April during a meeting that more than 50 attended, many of them opposed to the plan.

Proponents, however, have said the road would help traffic flow, take pressure off local roads and serve as a hurricane evacuation route from Pinellas County.

A public hearing on the proposed elevated lanes is set for July 21, and the agency hopes to reach a decision on the project by September, Chrzan said. Work could take up to two years. For planning purposes, the authority is assuming a 2014 opening.

Mikeael Eskildsen, who lives with Miller, is hosting a meeting to gather opposition to the proposal. The meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the store Eskildsen owns, Scan Design Furniture, 4221 W Gandy Blvd. He is circulating a petition and says he has more than 2,000 signatures.


[Last modified: Apr 30, 2009 04:30 AM]

http://www.tampabay.com/news/transpo...icle996587.ece

Originally Posted by HARTride 2012

Mikeael Eskildsen, who lives with Miller, is hosting a meeting to gather opposition to the proposal. The meeting is at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the store Eskildsen owns, Scan Design Furniture, 4221 W Gandy Blvd. He is circulating a petition and says he has more than 2,000 signatures.

I'm sorry, but your business barely gets any business anyway from the way I see it. So why in the hell do you continue to complain?

Furthermore, I think this bridge will be an attractor, not a detractor to new businesses in that strip mall wasteland where Winn Dixie used to be.

[TampaIAm]

I am on the Board of Directors for the neighborhood association directly north of Gandy between Manhatten Ave and the Bay(Bayside West), and I am so FOR this to finally happen...im not sure i understand the elders in my association, they dont seem to understand that this will make Gandy much better for the neighborhood, turning it into a more friendly avenue/boulevard than gridlocked street it is today...

[HARTride 2012]

I can also understand thier concern, believe it or not. It is the business owners that I don't understand. How they claim "oh, my business is going to go down!" As it is right now, barely anyone is getting business, except the fast food places and Sweetbay. No one can access these places for the longest time. Checkers & Sonic literally had to close thier doors for some time because the construction got so bad. Here are three things that will attract, not detract businesses. That bridge, WalMart, and whatever comes around for the old Winn Dixie plaza.

[HARTride 2012]

Well, things along Gandy are really begining to wrap up. Most of the median landscaping is complete and several through and turn lanes east of WestShore have opened. And, as of this morning, the new traffic signals at Lois Ave and Dale Mabry are fully operational, as well as the dual left turn lanes system at Dale Mabry.

[HARTride 2012]

Another update this morning, though not all the lanes are open yet, the new traffic signals at Manhattan/Gandy are operational as well. I think the WestShore/Gandy signals will be up and running by week's end.

[TampaIAm]

Originally Posted by HARTride 2012

Another update this morning, though not all the lanes are open yet, the new traffic signals at Manhattan/Gandy are operational as well. I think the WestShore/Gandy signals will be up and running by week's end.

Westshore and Gandy new signals up and running today...Blvd is looking darn good!

[Jasonhouse]

It will look even better once it's double decked and it isn't a congested nightmare anymore.

[TampaIAm]

Originally Posted by Jasonhouse

It will look even better once it's double decked and it isn't a congested nightmare anymore.

Agreed, now its just a better looking congested Blvd.

[I-275westcoastfl]

No pics? I haven't been on Gandly Blvd since 2004 lol.

[Jasonhouse]

You didn't miss anything.

[FloridaFuture]

Originally Posted by I-275westcoastfl

No pics? I haven't been on Gandly Blvd since 2004 lol.

Yeah, I think it's been almost as long for me too.

[HARTride 2012]

Gandy adding 'personality'

By JAMIE PILARCZYK jpilarczyk@tampatrib.com

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 13, 2009

SOUTH TAMPA - Jerry Frankhouser said he has learned to turn out of the Dunkin' Donuts parking lot onto Gandy Boulevard to make a U-turn and get back to his Bayside West house.

It took patience and some practice to make the move seamless. As president of the Bayside West Neighborhood Association, Frankhouser said, he is one of many people learning to deal with the aftermath of safety and aesthetic changes to a stretch of Gandy Boulevard between the Gandy Bridge and Dale Mabry Highway.

"There'll be a little training session as people get used to the traffic patterns but we're thankful for the upgrade," Frankhouser said. "It looks nice. It's got personality."

He said many people speak favorably of the project. Two notable exceptions: merchants who say new Gandy Boulevard medians limit access to their businesses; and residents of the Regency Cove community, who now must make U-turns when exiting their neighborhood to head east on Gandy, or when entering from the west.

The good news for residents is the $20 million project, including $161,000 in landscaping, almost is complete - ahead of schedule by a couple of months.

Jamie Pilarczyk

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul...ty/news-metro/