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Vacation's over, folks, as you'll see
By LOGAN D. MABE, Times Staff Writer TOWN 'N COUNTRY -- Doug Harris knows well the sound of motoring mayhem. Harris, a traffic reporter for a news service called Metro Traffic Control, listens to police scanners throughout the day keeping track of tangles across the bay area. "It's crazy now," Harris said on a wet and windy Wednesday. "I've got more action than you can shake a stick at. Jackknife rollovers, high winds on the bridges, and I'm looking at crashes all over. And come Monday, it's going to be a true test." Monday is when normal traffic jam patterns will resume with the end of the holidays and the mass return of commuters to the roads. And that's when thousands of workbound drivers will discover just how hard it will be navigating around the closed portion of the Veterans Expressway. "The true test of this "Fireball Road' will be when folks are really back from their vacations," Harris said. "That will separate the men from the boys." A tanker truck crashed on Independence Parkway, beneath the Veterans, on Dec. 29, and the ensuing fire was so severe that the bridge will have to be demolished and rebuilt. Florida Department of Transportation officials expect the work to take months. To skirt the trouble, desperate drivers were scouting other routes last week, with varying degrees of success. One popular alternative had commuters exiting at Hillsborough Avenue, jogging west to George Road, heading south to Independence Parkway, then east back to the open section of the Veterans. But because that detour is the most direct, it also proved the most jammed. Drivers were delayed by as much as an hour on George Road during morning rush hours. The Florida DOT suggests drivers use Hillsborough Avenue and travel east to Dale Mabry. But that doesn't help commuters trying to get to the bay bridges leading to Pinellas County. For drivers trying to get to Tampa, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Lt. Rod Reder suggested heading east on Bearss Avenue, then south on either North Boulevard, Florida Avenue, Interstate 275 or Nebraska Avenue. "Out-of-towners are going to be coming down the Veterans unknowingly," Reder said. "So I'd suggest that locals take these alternate routes." Other east-west connectors that drivers will likely explore include Ehrlich Road, Gunn Highway, Linebaugh Avenue and Waters Avenue. Turnpike officials hope to open two lanes of the southbound Veterans by the end of the week by creating two temporary lanes in the road's northbound lanes. "Just south of Memorial Highway, the two southbound lanes will shift east into the median area," said Turnpike District spokesman Mike Washburn. Washburn said an average of 20,000 cars a day use the southbound Veterans, and until the detour is in place, those drivers will be scrambling for open roads. "We feel that the worst is yet to come on Monday with school starting and a good number of people (coming back) from vacation," Washburn said. "We understand the frustration they'll see out there." Reder urged drivers to be resourceful and use a Back to the Future approach. "Remember before the Veterans was built? Remember how you got to work then and take that route," Reder said. - Logan D. Mabe can be reached at (813) 226-3464 or at mabe@sptimes.com.
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From the Times |
