Janet Shatto didn't know she was in trouble until it was too late.
Shatto was driving east on Ulmerton Road in mid Pinellas County, approaching the Howard Frankland Bridge toward Tampa.
"It wasn't until I was on the overpass and could see the bridge that I realized nothing was moving," Shatto said. "It must have been stopped for a while because people were backing up the overpass to get off. They were actually going the wrong way backwards. It would have been nice to have some warning when there was still time to turn around safely."
Shatto, a Lakeland resident who commutes four days a week to Steppin Out, her pet grooming salon in Clearwater, says she gets caught in unexpected backups about 40 percent of the time, "though when there are that many jams, I guess I shouldn't call them unexpected any more."
Shatto and thousands of motorists who have shared her pain will get some relief in April, when the Florida Department of Transportation begins operating electronic message signs from 54th Avenue N across the Howard Frankland Bridge to Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa to warn motorists of accidents, construction, backups and Amber Alerts.
There will be three signs each along the eastbound and westbound lanes of the bridge, and two additional signs - one on Kennedy Boulevard near Westshore and one on Ulmerton approaching the interstate.
"People will have warning before it's too late to turn around and find another route," said Kris Carson, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Department.
Over the next eight years, dozens of the electronic signs, as well as omni-directional cameras and pavement sensors all linked by fiber-optic cable, will beging operating along the region's interstates from the southern tip of the Sunshine Skyway through Pinellas, Hillsborough and Polk counties and from Pasco to Manatee County.
When the job is completed, there will be at least 74 signs, 275 pavement sensors and 130 cameras in the system, which will cost $110-million.
Traffic managers working from a command center in North Tampa will know immediately if traffic slows abnormally because road sensors will tell them. They can then train the cameras in the area to look up and down the interstate and out along intersecting roads to identify the problem. Each camera can see a half mile in any direction. Alerts will be posted immediately to the electronic signs.
"It's called an intelligent transportation system," said manager Bill Wilshire. "It prevents accidents, saves fuel and if it saves just one life, what's that worth?"
Three of the signs were put up in Pinellas in 2002 as a pilot project, one beside the southbound lanes of I-275 at 62nd Avenue N, one beside the northbound lanes at 26th Street S, and one along I-175 inbound toward Tropicana Field.
In the past three years they have been used for Amber Alerts, directions to parking for Devil Ray games, boat and home shows and downtown events, and to alert motorists to the occasional closing of the Skyway. Eventually, the three signs will be linked to the traffic alert system.
While the Howard Frankland segment is critical to the system, it will be the second to go into operation. First will be a 9-mile stretch along I-275 in Tampa between Martin Luther King Boulevard and Bearss Avenue. That section of road will get 11 cameras and eight message signs that will begin operating in January.
Before the end of next year, the cameras, signs and sensors also will be operating on:
--Interstates 275 and four from the Hillsborough River through the downtown Tampa Interchange.
--Along I-4 from 50th Street to the Mango-Thonotosassa exit east of I-75.
--Along Memorial Highway from Cypress Street to the Courtney Campbell Parkway.
The segment across the Sunshine Skyway to 54th Avenue S in St. Petersburg is due to go into operation in 2008. Virtually all the interstates in the most populous areas of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties will be finished in the next two years.
"There is additional work that takes us out to 2014, and some of that isn't funded yet," Wilshire said. They include Gandy Boulevard from the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway in Tampa to I-275 in St. Petersburg, and the Courtney Campbell from Rocky Point in Tampa to McMullen Booth Road in Clearwater.
