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Suncoast Pasco News

Dead End For Ridge Road?

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: February 18, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - The county's Ridge Road extension could become a road to nowhere.

Even if the county finally builds the new road, state officials recently removed money for a new interchange on the Suncoast Parkway for it.

The zig-zag course of the troubled project has veered in many directions for more than a decade now. Pasco commissioners remain determined to build the extension as another hurricane evacuation route and link between the west and central sections of Pasco.

Just when county officials thought they might be at long last getting close to obtaining a Ridge extension environmental permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, word came from the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise about the new turn of events.

The state agency has rolled over funding in its budget each year for the toll road interchange since at least 2001. State officials warned Pasco leaders even then the money could be yanked the longer it sat in the bank.

Now that the budget crunch has hit because of the recession, the interchange project hit a dead-end.

"This project is not in this five-year work program" through 2014, according to Christa Deason, public information officer for Florida's Turnpike Enterprise.

"You will remember that we were committed to construct the interchange after the County had extended Ridge Road out to the Parkway," Deason wrote in an e-mail reply.

"You are correct that the Turnpike had carried the funds from year to year in anticipation of the county finishing the project. With the tight budget year, we can't carry it over this year.

"As always, however, our work program is reviewed every year and projects may be moved in and out depending on available funding."

Pasco County Commission Chairman Jack Mariano was chagrined by the turnpike agency's decision to delete the funds.

A permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Ridge Road extension could help convince state transportation officials to restore money for an interchange, Mariano speculated.

County staff had responded to most of 10 questions posed in recent months by the Corps engineers.

State Sen. Mike Fasano had pushed for the Ridge Road interchange funds many years ago. But Fasano, R-New Port Richey, acknowledged shortages in road trust funds.

"It really would not be fair to hold those dollars there when there are other projects that are shovel ready," Greg Giordano, Fasano's chief legislative assistant, commented.

Fasano takes a "wait-and-see" attitude about whether the interchange project perhaps could qualify for federal stimulus money.

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