T.G.I. Friday's to open this evening

T.G.I. Friday's, which replaced the Bennigans restaurant in Highwoods Preserve, is set to open its doors for the first time in New Tampa at 5 p.m. today.

The restaurant is located at 18001 Highwoods Preserve Pkwy. Hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday; 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Call (813) 971-2769 for more information.

Tampa Palms homeowners reject bridge plan

Tampa Palms residents this afternoon roundly denounced a proposal to build a bridge connecting their neighborhood with West Meadows.

The bridge spanning Interstate-75 has been planned since the 1980s. But it was linked nearly all that time to a proposed east-west expressway, connecting West Meadows to Interstate-275.

Officials shelved the expressway plan this summer, as too expensive. The bridge appeared stalled too.

But city officials recently revived it.

"What didn't go away is the city's obligation to build that bridge," said Steve Daignault, Tampa's administrator for public works. "It's committed to doing that."

Council member Joseph Caetano, previously wary of the $20-million project, agreed. "We should carry through on it." he said.

Some 40 of Caetano's constituents, nearly all from Tampa Palms, disagreed today in a meeting at Freedom High School. They argued that the bridge could turn Tampa Palms Boulevard into a popular bypass around Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

"How do you do that to us?" asked Warren Dixon. "What can you be thinking?"

--Bill Coats, Times staff writer

Meeting to focus on east-west bridge

A public meeting on the city's proposal to build a bridge between West Meadows and Tampa Palms is scheduled for 1-3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 12, in the media center of Freedom High School, 17410 Commerce Park Blvd.

The meeting, organized by the area's City Council member, Joseph Caetano, will focus on a project that would have been vital to the now-defunct East-West expressway, but has a murky future now that the expressway has been shelved.

The bridge would carry traffic over Interstate 75 between New Tampa Boulevard in West Meadows and Commerce Park in Tampa Palms.

CDD race is hottest in Cory Lake Isles

On the day they filed to run for board seats in the Cory Lake Isles Community Development District, three candidates issued a joint press release, complete with an image of the U.S. Capitol and an acronym, SMART.

Soon, three opponents retaliated in kind. Now, the dueling trios are planning neighborhood gatherings, waves of fliers and the kind of competition common to City Council races.

All to govern the taxing district in their neighborhood, a job that in other places can sit vacant for lack of volunteers.

When filing closed on June 20, for example, CDDs in Tampa Palms and Arbor Greene had automatically filled three seats apiece with candidates who filed unopposed.

In Lutz’s Cheval West, both incumbents were instantly re-elected. Meanwhile, there is a mix of interest in New Tampa’s Heritage Isles and Lutz’s Heritage Harbor, two neighborhoods with similar problems and, well, heritages.

In Heritage Harbor, a spate of CDD resignations triggered a newsletter appeal last spring for fresh faces to get involved. Now, three seats are contested. The president of the Heritage Isles CDD, Steve Stark, was re-elected for lack of an opponent, but the other two incumbents have challengers.

As in Cory Lake, its neighbor to the south, the Heritage Isles election is shaping up as challengers allied against incumbents.

But the Heritage Isles rivalries are genteel. Incumbent William Martello says of his opponent: “If she beats me in the election, I would not be displeased.”

The Cory Lakes races are intense. Says David Burman, a challenger, “While concerned home­owners have given extensive feedback about management of the Cory Lake community, the sitting board headed by the developer remains unwilling to take our concerns into account.”

Says Suzanne Manzi, an incumbent, “I do not believe that my opponents have the least understanding of how complicated government is.”

Flyover to open Thursday morning. Almost certainly

Here's where things stand on that flyover we keep telling you about:

1. The Florida Department of Transportation says one lane will open on the tall new bridge very early Thursday. It will allow southbound drivers to veer off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, soar over Interstate-75, then merge into its southbound lane.

“We’re pretty comfortable with the Thursday date unless there’s a complete washout that night,” the DOT’s John McShaffrey said Monday.

2. The state’s contractor on the $42-million project, PCL Civil Constructors of Northdale, is far ahead of schedule. But after the DOT predicted the flyover would open last Friday, rain caused a delay. Then skies cleared enough over the weekend for PCL’s asphalt subcontractor to apply a final layer on a ramp leading from the flyover. It’s to open by 5 a.m. Thursday. “The only thing that’s weather-dependent is a little bit of striping they have to do,” McShaffrey said.

3. The flyover’s second lane won’t open until later this summer, when its merge lane on I-75 is ready, according to the DOT. PCL is required to finish by next spring, but is likely to finish by year’s end, he said.

4. In the meantime, expect more disruption as they finish the project. Workers plan tonight to close all lanes of I-75 over BBD. The interstate is to close from 9 p.m. tonight to 5 a.m. Wednesday. All I-75 motorists will be routed onto exit ramps, then directed by traffic officers across BBD to the on-ramp. That's likely to create serious delays for BBD drivers, as they wait for the passing parades of I-75 traffic.

I-75 flyover to open Friday morning

NEW TAMPA -- The quagmire on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard is scheduled to loosen up significantly Friday when the state's flyover carries its first traffic onto Interstate 75.

The new bridge is to open between midnight and 5 a.m. Friday, said John McShaffrey, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation.

But he added one "if." Before the flyover opens, weather must cooperate enough for PCL Civil Constructors Inc. to apply a final layer of asphalt at the top of the bridge's approach ramp to southbound I-75.

"We just don't have our crystal ball out," McShaffrey said this afternoon.

Overall, the $42-million project still won't be complete. Until later this summer, the flyover will carry only one lane of traffic because new merge ramps onto I-75 aren't ready for two, he said.

"It's going to be that way at least for a couple of months," McShaffrey said.

Also, northbound drivers on Bruce B. Downs will continue to enter southbound I-75 on their old ramp. A new ramp and a retooled intersection eventually will carry them under the flyover before they veer right to merge onto the interstate.

Those changes are expected by the end of the year, McShaffrey said.

Friday's bridge opening will force thousands of veteran commuters to jettison old habits. Drivers heading to southbound I-75 from southbound BBD will have to exit to the right to climb the flyover, instead of to the left at a traffic light.

Those who miss the change and look for their old turn lane will find it blocked by barrels on Friday and a barrier wall later, McShaffrey said. They'll have to drive farther south and make a U-turn to reach BBD.

"They'll probably only have that problem one time," McShaffrey said.

-- Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer

Night-time I-75 traffic to detour onto Bruce B. Downs

NEW TAMPA -- Construction crews plan to close Interstate 75 at Bruce B. Downs Boulevard for six nights beginning tonight, a move likely to slow traffic in every direction at the busy interchange.

The closures, scheduled to run from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight through Monday morning, are necessary as workers install bridge girders for a future flyover at the intersection.

I-75 will function more like a boulevard than an interstate. Forced onto exit ramps, interstate travelers will have to cross Bruce B. Downs, directed by law-enforcement officers, onto the entrance ramps.

“Traffic-wise, it’s fairly simple,” said John McShaffrey, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation. “But it’s going to cause some backups on the interstate. You can’t have people going through there at highway speeds.”

Envision 18-wheelers stopping and starting on the exit ramps.

It could mean some waiting for night owls on BBD. McShaffrey said officers will give priority to the higher-volume I-75 traffic.

McShaffrey said three pairs of girders must be raised into place above the interstate. Eventually, the road bed those girders support will allow southbound drivers on Bruce B. Downs to curve over I-75 and merge into its southbound lanes.

The project is to be completed by spring of next year.

McShaffrey said the construction schedule is tentative beyond Thursday night. Contractors hope to avoid the girder work on Friday and Saturday nights, but could extend it beyond Sunday night, he said.

-- Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer

Suburban Vegans

Brenda Sonneborn, 31, co-founder of New Tampa Vegans, cuts lasagna in her kitchen. She went from being vegetarian to vegan two years ago. Photo by Melissa Lyttle, Times

After moving to Richmond Place from New York with her husband two years ago, Joan Zacharias felt like she was the only one. Everywhere she looked: Meat, meat, meat.

"You look around and see all the chain restaurants and rib shacks, " she said. "What are we supposed to do?"

Being vegan in the suburbs, Zacharias, 49, found, is no easy feat. While she could easily come across organic produce stands and vegan restaurants in New York, Tampa suburbanites very much love their Lee Roy Selmon's restaurants, their Chick-fil-A drive-throughs and their Hooters wings. She became accustomed to the looks of confusion, even horror, from her new meat-eating friends and neighbors when she described a diet void of meat, dairy, eggs or anything else involving animals.

So Zacharias was relieved to meet Brenda Sonneborn, another New Tampa vegan, on an online vegan message board.

Condo conversion at Carrington

Carrington Park apartments have been sold to a South Florida real estate converter, becoming yet another player in New Tampa's condo conversion trend.

And it looks like the rest of the area isn't too far behind.

"The list of rental communities in New Tampa converting to condo includes just about all of them," said Byron Moger, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield, which sold Carrington Park on Jan. 12. "Only about two or three (apartment complexes) are not slated to go condo."