Monster detours awaiting drivers

Night closings on Bruce B. Downs will send drivers on a big loop along I-75.

By Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer
Published February 26, 2008

NEW TAMPA - Night-owl drivers will find Bruce B. Downs Boulevard impassable under Interstate 75 tonight through Friday morning.

Getting from one side to the other will involve a round-trip detour of more than 6 miles on I-75.

The boulevard is being closed for a construction project between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. each night.

Construction crews are building a flyover at the interchange.

When it's completed next year, the flyover will speed southbound drivers from Bruce B. Downs over I-75 and into the southbound lanes, unsnarling congestion that currently occurs as they wait at traffic lights to make left turns.

The work has prompted authorities to close various sections of I-75 over the last two months. But this week's changes are the first full closures of Bruce B. Downs since early December.

Detours will send drivers onto I-75, where they'll take the next exit for an elaborate U-turn back onto the interstate and back to the opposite side of Bruce B. Downs.

[Last modified February 26, 2008, 00:06:24]