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DOT Addresses Construction Backups On Interstate 275

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2008

TAMPA - Transportation officials are looking for ways to ease massive backups created this week when construction workers barricaded a part of northbound Interstate 275 used by more than 94,000 vehicles a day.

On Monday, workers finished a barrier wall between the entrance ramp serving Howard and Armenia avenues and the Ashley Drive-Scott Street exit into downtown.

The wall eliminated about half the lane that motorists use to both merge from Howard and Armenia onto I-275 and to exit the highway into downtown.

Some drivers also use the mile-long lane as a through lane to bypass traffic on the right. Along that stretch, the interstate grows to four lanes then shrinks back to three.

The barrier turned a frequently bad drive from Pinellas County to Tampa into a nightmare with a conga line of traffic backed up at times across the Howard Frankland Bridge.

The barrier may be there until March 2009.

"We are aware of the problem. We feel we can make it better. We don't know how much better," said John McShaffrey, Department of Transportation spokesman for interstate projects.

"We don't expect this to take weeks. We feel it should be a few days."

Much of the congestion is caused by drivers trying to use the lane to get around traffic only to find they have to merge back sooner than expected.

"People have been using that entrance and exit to flow around slower traffic. They can't do that now," McShaffrey said.

Relief could come from better signs telling drivers they have to merge. That might mean more signs or moving signs already in place or both, McShaffrey said.

DOT also may lengthen the barrier to make the entrance lane for Howard and Armenia the same length as entry lanes for Dale Mabry Highway or Lois Avenue. That would eliminate people trying to use the lane for through traffic.

"The engineers have to look at it," McShaffrey said.

Nothing the department does, though, will stop the congestion.

The road changes are part of a major project to widen northbound I-275 from three lanes to four between Himes Avenue and the Hillsborough River.

The barricades are necessary for workers rebuilding the interstate overpass at North Boulevard. They will be in place until March unless the contractor finishes ahead of schedule.

DOT was surprised by the severity of the traffic jams.

"Sometimes you do things in the planning room and get in the real world and have it not work out. If we'd known, we wouldn't have designed it that way," McShaffrey said.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or at njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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