20th Anniversary of Northwest Hillsborough County Road Construction Projects

As a follower of the Hillsborough County (Florida) Metropolitan Planning Organization, I stay pretty up-to-date with what is going on with Hillsborough County's roadways. As a resident of Northwest Hillsborough County for most of my life, I have an especially vested interest in how the roads are taking shape in my neck of the woods.

Up until the recent economic woes, it seemed there was always something being built somewhere in Hillsborough County. For a good part of my young years, that growth was largely centered in Northwest Hillsborough County, which includes areas of Carrollwood, Northdale, Forest Hills, and Town & Country (for all unfamiliar with Tampa, these are suburbs north and west of Tampa International Airport and Raymond James Stadium -- where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL professional football team plays).

Coincidentally enough, I was not only a young boy at the time, I was a young boy who loved the construction and road-widening activity that was popping up all along Northwest Hillsborough County during the late 1980s: North Dale Mabry Highway, Pine Crest Manor Boulevard, Gunn Highway, West Waters Avenue, West Fletcher Avenue, and West Bearss Avenue -- all major arteries of Northwest Hillsborough County that turned orange and yellow with barricades, cones, and work equipment.

Why Mark the "Anniversary" of Road Construction?

I was going through some old photographs of mine just the other day and came across a couple packets of old photographs of the construction projects from the time. It immediately popped into my head that it was 1989 when Northwest Hillsborough County road construction projects were in their peak of madness.

Certainly, anyone reading this who knows Tampa-area traffic can attest that the traffic problems still exist today, even with the multi-million dollar road construction projects that were all abuzz twenty years ago. But then, where would we be without a six-lane, double-left-turn Dale Mabry Highway (just a two-and-four-lane road before then)?

We could forget east-west travel throughout Northwest Hillsborough County had West Fletcher and Bearss Avenues remained two-lane winding, neighborhood roads. Whose mind does not fall into a vice grip at the mere thought of Lake Magdelene Boulevard and Country Club Drive being practically the main roads in Carrollwood/Forest Hills/Lake Magdalene neighborhoods? (Longtime residents know exactly what I'm talking about!).

I am certain few of us here are fans of sprawl, and many will say it was these very projects, along with the Veteran's Expressway which was originally completed in by 1994, that helped feed the monstrous suburban growth that marked the 1980s and 1990s in Northwest Hillsborough County. Citrus Park Mall, Westchase, and "west" Lutz would have been virtually impossible without the expansion of the Northwest Hillsborough County roadway system which underwent massive makeovers and widening during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

But its fair to say the growth -- seemingly uncontrollable growth -- would have come anyway, had these Northwest Hillsborough County roads been widened or not.

So let's mark the 20th anniversary of Northwest Hillsborough County road construction not with a collective "ugh," but a contemplative "hmm..." as we wonder where we would be today as commuters, as shoppers, as Tampans, without the massive road construction projects we courageously endured (and I very much enjoyed) twenty years ago....

Resource:

Personal experience