Tampa, Fla. — Hillsborough transportation planners on Wednesday boosted funding for street upgrades meant to handle traffic around the proposed Rays ballpark district in West Tampa.
The Transportation Planning Organization raised the job to roughly $10.3 million from about $3.4 million, folding nearly $7 million more into the 2027-2031 program for work on Tampa Bay Boulevard and Air Cargo Road.
Crews are penciled in for 2027. The scope expands selected two-lane stretches to four lanes on both corridors, adds resurfacing and sidewalks, enlarges a roundabout and installs a pair of new signals, one of them near the planned stadium gate.
Financing is described as a mix of federal National Highway Performance Program dollars and state transportation money. On Tampa Bay Boulevard, the four-lane section would run between Dale Mabry Highway and Lois Avenue; Air Cargo Road would grow to four lanes from the boulevard out to West Ohio Avenue on the stadium side.
Staff told the board the bigger price also rebuilds the South Lois Avenue roundabout from one lane to two, reworks the boulevard and Air Cargo intersection for airport plus event traffic, and adds drainage where those streets already flood.
The amendment passed 13 to 2. Commissioner Joshua Wostal cast a no vote and asked whether the road money would still be locked in if the stadium deal collapses or ends up in court.
The indoor park is planned on ground now used by Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus. Public partners are described as capping their share near $876 million while the club covers more than $1.3 billion plus overruns, aiming for a 2029 opening season.
Even supporters cautioned that widening those two streets will not erase every traffic and flood worry tied to West Tampa growth. The 2027 build window is the next concrete step while stadium financing and legal questions continue on a separate track.
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