Expressway officials were quick to blame the increase on URS Corp., chief engineering consultant and designer of the support pier that sank and caused a section of the road to collapse. Wednesday marks the first anniversary of the accident.

``This is a URS toll,'' Thomas Gibbs, chairman of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority, said Monday. ``We are having to raise tolls because of all this much sooner than we expected.''

Tolls will increase from 25 cents to 50 cents, depending on the plaza motorists enter or exit. The increase had been planned for 2009.

The elevated portion of the roadway is scheduled open in July 2006, six months before the 2007 increase.

State finance officials are requiring the toll increase to repay a $215 million bond issue needed to finish the project and repay earlier loans from the Florida Department of Transportation.

Gibbs said state officials approved a $125.5 million bond issue the day of the collapse that did not require a toll increase until July 1, 2009. The accident scuttled that package.

Also Monday, the authority board learned URS is suing one of the project's insurance companies for $2.2 million.

URS, in the lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Tampa, says Security Insurance Co. of Hartford promised to reimburse it for testing on the bridge foundations and for ``media and lobbyists consultants to defuse possible negative publicity.''

The authority, URS and Security Insurance are scheduled for mediation in August to determine which pays for the collapse. The step is required before the dispute possibly escalates into a lawsuit.

The lawsuit against Security Insurance creates more ``bad public relations'' for the company, said Tampa lawyer John Vento, who is representing the authority in the mediation. He also chastised URS for not informing expressway officials about the lawsuit.

Expressway officials said the lawsuit, if successful, could reduce the insurance settlement the authority receives toward bridge repairs.

``That's totally false,'' said Tom Logan, senior vice president for URS. The most the authority can collect from Security Insurance is $10 million, he said.

Logan said URS has spent more than $1.5 million for pier testing.

``I don't know why the authority is at issue with this,'' he said. ``All we are trying to do is get reimbursed.''

Security Insurance officials could not be reached for comment late Monday.

In January, the authority and the Florida Department of Transportation picked the repair plan prepared by Ardaman & Associates, the company hired to investigate why two foundations failed. Ardaman said 155 of the project's 218 supports need to be stabilized. URS said as few as four of the concrete pilings need to be shored up.

``It's not our plan. It's the Ardaman plan,'' Logan said. ``They should call it the Ardaman toll.''

Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 259-7691.