TAMPA, Fla. — Interbay Boulevard has changed a lot over the years, according to Brenda Wyatt, at least.

What You Need To Know

  • The city of Tampa is going to be updating Interbay Boulevard in the near future

  • The project, called MacDill Air Force Base Access Improvements is being done to improve access to the base and improve driving conditions on Interbay

  • Local residents who live on Interbay say it's time for improvements after seeing folks speed and drive recklessly on the street for years

“It was country,” said Wyatt, who lives on Interbay. “And we didn’t have nearly the traffic that we have now.”

Wyatt has lived in the same home on Interbay Boulevard in south Tampa for more than 30 years, but it’s now a street she rarely strolls down.

“I don’t walk Interbay,” she said. “We’ll go out in the back way and walk through the little neighborhoods back there. I can’t walk it because I get frustrated.”

According to Wyatt, Interbay has become less and less safe over the last five years.

“It’s just dangerous,” she said, as a car sped by. "As you see.”

Wyatt said cars speed down the road all the time and there are blind spots on some of the side streets, which has led to dangerous intersections for drivers and pedestrians.

“If you’re crossing over here as a pedestrian, a car’s not going to see you,” Wyatt said. “If you’re right here, that car can’t see you until it rounds that corner.”

Speeding has gotten so bad, in Wyatt’s view, that she and her neighbor bought "Slow Down" signs to put in front of their yard, in the hopes that the small gesture might make a difference.

“A lot of times, that’s what you have to do,” Wyatt said. “Just take matters into your own hands and hope for the best.”

Soon, though, that hope is expected to come to fruition in the form of a new project to widen and refurbish Interbay Boulevard.

“We collected data on where all the crashes are happening within the city,” said Vic Bhide, Tampa’s director of mobility. “And Interbay was one of those high crash, high Injury network locations.”

It’s partly why Bhide says he’s excited about the MacDill Area Access Improvement Project.

The city will be widening Interbay Boulevard west of Dale Mabry Highway from an undivided two-lane road to a divided three-lane road.

As part of the project, workers will be resurfacing and re-striping a roughly three-mile stretch of road to enhance safety and the driving experience in that part of south Tampa.

“It’s a critical artery that runs through south of Gandy and connects various north-south streets,” Bhide said.

That is why he says it’s exciting, and vital to make these improvements.

“This will address a lot of safety concerns in the area as well and, of course, the mobility,” Bhide said.

Bhide said the design phase of the project will take about a year and a half to complete before any physical construction takes place.