Hillsborough County is way behind on its efforts to keep up with transportation repairs across the county.
The Hillsborough County Commission heard an update Tuesday on why that is, and much of its issues comes down to funding, or a lack thereof.
A full breakdown of the county’s transportation spending shows:
- The county would like to spend $65 million annually toward resurfacing around 5% - or 340 miles - of its roadways. Right now, it spends $5.4 million annually to repave just .3% of roadways, or 23 miles.
- The county wants to spend $10-13 million annually toward repairing 75,000 – 100,000 feet of sidewalk yearly, but it only spends $550,000 annually to fix approximately 4,000 feet each year.
- An ‘optimal’ repair plan for bridges in the county would mean 18 repair or rehab projects each year, along with 20 bridge replacements over 10 years, costing about $16 million each year. Currently the county spends just $200,000 each year on its bridge maintenance, with one bridge repaired every two years and no replacements.
- The county would like to install five new traffic signals each year costing around $2.5 million, but currently no funds are dedicated to those projects.
- Another largely unfunded project would focus on building and improving new trails for walking and biking, at the cost of $86 million.
On top of those gaps in funding Hillsborough County officials would like to make up, county staff says another $224 million would be ideal to dedicate to intersection safety enhancements to provide congestion relief and reduce roadway conflicts, with another $254 million going toward safety and mobility enhancements to improve safety on high-injury corridors and school walking routes.
And that’s not even the biggest expense presented. Another bucket of money would prioritize congestion relief toward the county’s busiest traffic corridors, like Big Bend Road, Lithia Pinecrest Road, and Progress Boulevard. To get seven major corridors improved, it would cost the county approximately $650 million.
County Commissioners like Ken Hagan know that transportation issues are at the top of Hillsborough County residents' minds, based on residents he's interacted with.
"I can tell you that by far the number one complaint and service requests that are generated from neighborhoods, come from, or involve, resurfacing and sidewalk repairs, and it's not even close,” Hagan said.
The presentation shows that there are over 3,000 open sidewalk repair requests, impacting over 950 neighborhoods and spanning over 300 miles.
Hillsborough County did receive some federal funding that it’s using for safety enhancements and large-scale roadway projects, but it isn’t nearly enough to provide the relief necessary to keep up with the list of projects that need to be completed.
The Hillsborough County Commission will continue discussing transportation issues and other concerns as it finalizes its budget for the fiscal year starting in October.
