TAMPA - A plan aimed at extending the widening of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard to Bearss Avenue is back on the Hillsborough County Commission’s radar.

Commission Chairman Ken Hagan said he plans to seek support for a staff review of the project design at Wednesday’s board meeting. He wants the commission to consider reducing the planned eight-lane widening to six lanes extending from Bearss Avenue to County Line Road.

To accomplish that goal, the board would have to reallocate millions of dollars from the original project to include a new segment from Bearss Avenue to Palm Springs Boulevard in Tampa Palms. A group of Tampa Palms residents has been petitioning other commissioners to support Hagan’s proposal.

Hagan said some of the needed dollars could be raised by shaving the project to six lanes.

County Administrator Pat Bean also has asked U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, the Palm Harbor Republican whose district includes New Tampa, in a letter to help direct $41.7 million in federal dollars to include the new segment.