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Bus Station Debut Delayed A Month

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By ANGELA DELGADO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2008

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Although Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority staff members expected the Northwest Transfer Center to be completed by this month, the opening date has been held off a month.

The reasons: a sanitary line and a pocket of muck, said Project Manager Les Weakland.

"One issue was the coordination of a major relocation of a 24-inch sanitary line," he said. "The second issue was an issue where we ran into a pocket of muck or unstable surface area that was going to affect the integrity of our roadway."

Workers had to remove the area and replace it with new soil, Weakland said.

The $3.36 million project is now scheduled to open July 27, with the grand-opening celebration taking place July 29.

"That put a little wrench in the works, but that's all behind us now," said Ed Crawford, chief of government affairs for HART. "Nothing else should interrupt us unless we start having monsoons or something. We should be able to stick to that time frame."

Today, the "transfer center" is at Hanley Road and Waters Avenue, in front of the now-defunct U-Save, which owns the property the station is on. The company has been allowing HART to keep a station there for 11 years, but with a handshake agreement that if it gave HART notice, the agency would have to vacate within 30 days, Crawford said.

Once the Northwest Transfer Center opens, the one at Hanley and Waters will close, Crawford said. There will still be street stops along Waters Avenue, but the bus won't pull into the former U-Save shopping plaza.

While the former center basically had one shelter and a few benches for bus riders, the new one will have eight docking stations and large shelters around a central building. There will be bathrooms, drinking fountains, a ticket-vending machine and a 93-space park-and-ride lot.

The 8.4-acre tract was acquired from the county for free on the condition that if HART were to cease operation on the property, the land would go back to the county, Weakland said.

Something that will be functioning in the next couple of weeks is the traffic light in front of the Northwest Hillsborough Family YMCA, which is located across the street from the transfer center.

The light will be flashing yellow for two weeks before going into use so drivers get used to it being there, Crawford said.

"It's a nicer location," Crawford said of the new transit center. "It has the Y right there. We're right next to the Winn-Dixie store, a sandwich shop. There are places for operators to go, patrons to go. We're close to the Upper Tampa Bay Trail. In every way, this will be superior."

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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