FDOT introducing major Courtney Campbell Causeway project

TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida Department of Transportation District 7 is hosting a community meeting Thursday night to kick off its Project Development and Environmental Study for a major project on the Courtney Campbell Causeway from Clearwater to Tampa.

The project is in its early planning stages but will likely include widening the causeway as well as adding more environmental buffers between the water and the road.

Kirk Bogen, FDOT District 7 Environmental Engineer, said one of the first things the project will address are bridge spans on the causeway.

“I know one of the areas that we are probably going to look at first is the main span bridges to see if we need to replace those or expand those and where they are,” Bogen said.

The goal of any project on the causeway, according FDOT, would be to improve traffic congestion and harden it against major storms.

But some groups are less worried about the pavement and more worried about the water the causeway crosses.

Justin Trimble with Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, a nonprofit working to protect Tampa Bay’s watershed says his group will attend the meeting tonight, and hopes any project will improve water flow near the causeway.

“We believe this is a great opportunity to help Tampa Bay,” said Tramble.  “We believe that any infrastructure investments that are made should help the environment, should help the Tampa Bay estuary and not harm it.

Thursday’s meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the DoubleTree Hilton on Rocky Point.