Matt Walsh: The road to ruin: Letting FDOT build our highways

Matt Walsh: The road to ruin: Letting FDOT build our highways

While Gov. Charlie Crist (our favorite shooting target) is traveling to the Middle East to continue laying the foundation for his run at the Republican vice presidential nomination and, after that, the presidency (don't laugh), Southwest Florida's transportation needs on Interstate 75 from Tampa Bay to Collier County are a prima facie example of how and why all road building and the government transportation departments should be abolished and privatized.

Everyone in Southwest Florida sees it everyday - traffic coming to a standstill at least twice a day on I-75 in Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Lee and Collier counties. It's difficult to say which area is the worst; they're all horrendous.

When will we get relief - additional capacity?

Well, if you think it's aggravating to sit in traffic, you should try cruising through the Florida Department of Transportation's project schedules on its Web site. Many of us will be dead before we see progress. A few examples:

• Lee-Collier County

State Road 82 - This east-west road connects I-75 with Immokalee and Ave Maria. It's Lehigh Acres' prime route to the interstate. It provides access to Fort Myers, Florida Gulf Coast University, Southwest Florida International Airport, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Immokalee and Big Cypress Reservations.

When FDOT measured its traffic in 2006, it rated the service level at D to E, the worst possible. FDOT also notes that SR 82 has crash rates that are higher than statewide crash rates for similar roadways.

Needless to say, widening this 23-mile stretch of road as quickly as possible is urgent.

And guess what, FDOT is right on it. Take a look at the table on page 5. It blows you away. It goes like this:

• Data collection and study began in June 2006, a year ago.

• They will be completed in December - a year and a half.

• A public workshop will be held in the spring, 2007.

• A public hearing will be held in the fall, 2007.

• After the hearing, project documents will be submitted to the U.S. Highway Administration for location and design concept acceptance.

Now here's the kicker: There currently is no funding in the FDOT five-year plan for design, right-of-way acquisition or construction.

Interstate 75 - Two years ago - two years ago - Gov. Bush signed legislation allowing Lee and Collier counties to establish an expressway authority so it could speed up widening of I-75.

The authority obviously was needed. Its creation came two years after FDOT approved a plan to widen I-75 in portions of Lee and Collier counties to 10 lanes in phased construction.

Construction on two of those lanes is beginning this year - four years after the plan was approved. And they aren't expected to be completed until 2010!

But even after those lanes are completed, consultants' studies show the service levels still will be operating at Level E, the lowest level. According to Florida Transportation Monthly, "Unless some alternative funding source such as tolls is used, Southwest Florida motorists will experience unacceptable congestion and delays on I-75 for at least two decades."

Thus the expressway authority has begun its own efforts to construct tollways alongside and connected to I-75 that would add capacity at least a decade faster than if the widening were left to the government.

Unfortunately, when the Legislature created the expressway authority, it limited its scope of activity only to widening I-75.

• Sarasota-Manatee-Charlotte

Interstate 75 - FDOT has acknowledged in its long-term plans that I-75 needs to be widened from four to six lanes from State River Road in Manatee County south to Kings Highway in Charlotte County.

Once again, FDOT is in a rush to get this completed. Its current schedule calls for the department to begin "the preparation of construction plans" in fiscal 2010. 2010!

And, oh by the way, right-of-way acquisition is not in FDOT's five-year plans.

On and on it goes.

When Congressman Vern Buchanan, a new member of the House Transportation Committee, was asked two weeks at an Argus Foundation luncheon when Southwest Florida might expect to see additional transportation funding from Congress, he said nothing more will come this way until the current transportation funding bill runs out in 2010.

Buchanan said the region's best hope is to be included in the transportation appropriations bill when Congress reauthorizes funding in 2009.

As you absorb all of this absurdity, it should be clear as glass that these conditions are going to be detrimental to Southwest Florida's economy. We're already seeing the effects in east Manatee County of having to wait for federal, state and county road funding. County commissioners there essentially have enforced a building moratorium until road capacity is in place.

This is incredibly costly on many economic fronts: No road building means no home building, no retail building, no job creation. Traffic congestion damages economic health as well. If Wal-Mart and Publix's trucks can't move swiftly in and out of their distribution centers in Southwest Florida, consumer prices will go up.

All of this calls for initiatives from the private sector. Don't count on government.

Gov. Crist recently vetoed $1 million for startup costs for a new regional expressway authority in Tampa Bay. He didn't want to use road-building money for administrative costs.

Fair enough. In that vacuum, perhaps the private sector can step forward. It would be in the interest of Publix, Wal-Mart, gasoline distributors, building suppliers and others to receive tax credits for funding a privately operated, not-for-profit expressway authority.

The mission would be clear:

• Speed up the expansion of I-75; and

• Develop a privately funded, privately owned, multilane tollway east of I-75, running from I-4 to Alligator Alley.

Waiting for Congress, Gov. Crist and FDOT to build a road is like waiting for peace in the Middle East.