Many of us have seen the plans to extend the 408 from the end at Hwy 50 to 520 with one option being an elevated highway. It seems we aren’t the only ones with this idea. The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority voted to spend about $2.6 million for an engineering firm to update plans for elevated lanes over Gandy Boulevard in Tampa. The total cost of the 1.6 miles will be between 165 million to 190 million.
This is about the same distance as our “Segment 1″ which runs from the end of the 408 to Avalon Parkway. From Avalon Parkway to 419 is about twice this distance so it would cost over 300 million for “Segment 2″ alone so a very ball part estimate puts Segment 1 and Segment 2 at about 450 million. That is a lot of money. Can CFX absorb that cost as this extension will not pay for itself for many years to come. I certainly hope CFX can work magic as we need this road desperately. Then comes “Segment 3″ which goes from 419 to 520 and is the same length as both Segment 1 and Segment 2 combined so double the amount comes out to 900 million.
My disclaimer is my estimates are based on nothing more than the cost of the elevated highway over Gandy Boulevard. We are way to early in the project for CFX to estimate the cost so don’t take these numbers as anything more than my math. They did not come from CFX. Does this seem right or am I way off base?