To some New Tampa residents, it may seem like those orange cones and dirt piles along Bruce B. Downs Boulevard are permanent fixtures. 

But the widening of the main artery in New Tampa is no simple task. In fact, KCI Technologies Engineer Scott Passmore likes to think of road construction as open-heart surgery while the patient is on the move. It’s not a matter of simply pouring more asphalt — infrastructure has to be ripped out and put back in place, too. 

“We basically cut out the heart of New Tampa and stitched it all back together,” he said.

The county project, which will bring Bruce B. Downs Boulevard from four to eight lanes, has been causing its share of headaches for local residents and business owners. Traffic jams are up and business is down, many say. Yet luckily, the project is on track, Passmore said.

“We began in January 2010, and right now the current schedule is to be substantially completed by the end of the year,” he said.

Passmore is referring to Segments B and C — from Palm Springs Boulevard to Pebble Creek Drive, which affects New Tampa. The cost for this portion of the project is about $37 million.

In addition to increasing the number of traffic lanes, the project will bring landscaped medians, a sidewalk and asphalt path plus bus bays.

The ongoing project has tested the patience of some.

“It’s killing our delivery business,” Chris Sohrabi, general manager of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches, told Patch in September. “If we don’t meet our delivery-time criteria, our business service area gets smaller and smaller.”

And Stacy Hiles, owner of Stacy’s Gluten Free Goodies on Cross Creek Boulevard, wrote on Facebook this week that the project impacts businesses owners off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, too.

“I have customers who are taking 3 times longer to get here!” she wrote.

An informal poll by New Tampa Patch showed that 64 percent of participants chose to shop outside of New Tampa because they said it was too difficult to enter certain plazas.