Begging for federal dollars

As he ran for mayor, Bob Buckhorn said he would develop a financing plan to complete the unfinished segments of Tampa's 2.6-mile-long Riverwalk.

So, the plan?

"That's called begging,” Buckhorn joked in an interview with PolitiFact Florida on Feb. 28, 2012. As mayor, Buckhorn has met with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood three times to talk about the city's request for a federal transportation grant, known as a TIGER grant, to pay for building the last unfinished sections of the Riverwalk.

The final gaps in the Riverwalk consist of one segment that would connect MacDill Park to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, and a second that would go north from near the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts along Doyle Carlton Drive to Water Works Park.

Together, those two segments would cost $13.7 million. Of the two, the MacDill Park-to-Curtis Hixon park segment is more expensive, nearly $10 million. That's because the Sheraton hotel and other properties along that section are built out to the seawall, so the Riverwalk will have to be built over the river near the bank. The project also would require the construction of an underpass under the Kennedy Boulevard bridge.

In December 2011, federal transportation officials denied the city's application for a grant to build that section of the Riverwalk. For that round of grants, the agency received 828 applications totalling more than $14 billion in projects, but it had only $511 million to award.

On March 16, 2012, the city applied for the transportation department's next round of TIGER grants to be announced in the fall. This time, the city is teaming up with the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority to link the Riverwalk to a proposed 15-foot-wide, 1.7 mile multi-use trail that would be built along the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway. The Selmon Greenway would connect to the Riverwalk and go east and north to just east of 19th Street.

"I think it will be a more robust application, based on our conversations on our last TIGER grant,” Buckhorn said.

The city and Expressway Authority are seeking a total of $10.9 million in federal TIGER grant funds and have committed to matching that with another $4.7 million -- or 30 percent of the projects' total costs.

Buckhorn said he plans to seek support from private sector donors to shore up the city's match, though he had yet to talk to his prospects.

As a candidate, Buckhorn promised to come up with a financing plan to finish the Riverwalk. He has one, although it depends on the federal government coming through for the city and some yet-to-be-identified private support. As such, it's a promise that's still In the Works.