Posted on 09/12/2021 4:46:44 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Long before she was tall enough to sit behind a steering wheel, Paula Nelson-Blattner was experiencing the best and the worst of the Howard Frankland Bridge.
“As a kid, I was always nervously asking my parents, ‘Did you check your gas?’” said Nelson-Blattner, 52, who got the creeps crossing the concrete span, perched as it is atop golf-tee shaped pillars as far as 58 feet above the waters of Old Tampa Bay. “Of course, once you’re close enough to read the warnings, not a gas station is in sight and it’s far too late to turn back.”
The “check your gas” signs on the Pinellas and Hillsborough sides aren’t just about the distance ahead, some four miles from one end of the bridge to the other. They also signal the risk that you’ll get stuck there for a while.
Since the day it opened in January 1960, the bridge — derided as the Howard Frankenstein, the Car Strangled Spanner and Frankland’s Folly — has proven to be the region’s most frustrating chokepoint as well as its most indispensable link.
The love-hate relationship continues even after major bridge expansions that opened in 1990 and 1992.
So now, the state Department of Transportation is giving the 60-year-old Howard Frankland another makeover at a cost of $865.3 million — most of it to build an all-new bridge just north of the existing spans. Work is expected to finish in 2026.
The collective bridges are named for William Howard Frankland, a Tampa rubber magnate who spent years trying to convince local businessmen, civic leaders and fellow members of the Florida Road Board that a third cross-bay bridge would spark economic development and that a location between the Gandy Bridge and the Courtney Campbell Parkway would be the perfect choice.
(Excerpt) Read more at tampabay.com ...
PING!
They will have a toll for this? Will it last long enough to be paid for? Will anyone ever know if it does get paid for?
I drove the old Frankland, probably 20+ years ago. Having crossed the Chesapeake Bay bridge/tunnel many times the Frankland didn’t bother me. I kind of enjoyed it.
Adding bike lanes is wasted money IMVHO.
Adding space for possible light rail is either forward thinking or folly. Only time will tell.
I’m one who is okay with tolls in some places. I don’t see gas prices going down unless Trump, or a Trump clone, takes the WH in 2024. Then the CPA (Communist Party of America) will just screw it up again when they take power again. Let those who actually use it pay for it.
Thé tolls never go away, always get larger.
The new span came in ten years late and $5 billion over cost. As hearings revealed, the brittle Chinese steel and inexperienced Chinese welders led to serious safety issues with cracked bolts, cracked rods, and corrosion issues. Bay Area residents who have declined to use the bridge include Abolhassan Astaneh-Asi, professor of structural engineering, mechanics and materials at UC Berkeley. When notified of the safety concerns, recurring California governor Jerry Brown famously said, “Don’t know if it’s a setback. I mean, look, shit happens.”
I am nervous every time I go over that bridge.
I started going over that bridge in 1970 when I was going to school in Tampa. We used to call it the Howard Franklin Stein Bridge LOL one time in a very very heavy Florida Thunder shower my windshield wipers broke as I was going over the bridge and I had to roll the window down in keep looking out to see where the heck I was going. It was really a mess.
I have no idea how many times I drove over the Bay Bridges over the years because I had a sales route over on the Coast.
I left Central Florida 15 years ago and will be quite happy to never drive an automobile anywhere in that area again.
Courtney Campbell Parkway bridges were made using salt water in the concrete mix making the 50 year bridge last 25.
Contractor filed for bankruptcy making the state DOT pay for needed repairs.
They should be able to make it of gold plated silver...
I had windshield wipers stop working once. Luckily my little brother was riding with me so I had him reach out and work the wipers manually. He got soaked but I could see!
Florida traffic in general is problematic. If I moved to Florida it would be in the northern/panhandle area.
Unfortunately that wouldn’t have helped me in this particular instance. The rubber ripped off the wiper blade as I was going over the bridge in the storm
Clearwater taps Portland, Maine, leader as first new city manager in 20 years
Jon Jennings will succeed city manager Bill Horne, who died Aug. 14, three weeks before retirement.
September 2, 2021
CLEARWATER — The City Council voted Thursday to hire a new city manager for the first time in 20 years, unanimously selecting Jon Jennings, the top administrator from Portland, Maine, with a background in the federal government, the private sector and professional sports.
Council members pointed to Jennings’ entrepreneurial experience, as he raised $1.5 million to bring an NBA development team to Portland 14 years ago and recruited industry after becoming city manager in 2015.
I meant to post this with as a side note referrnce.
Yes, the actual rubber blade ripping off is a different ball game. But hey, you crossed the bridge and came away with a story! Always a good thing.
The toll will be only on the express lanes.
I drove over that bridge once, as well as one time on the Golden Gate Bridge (same day). I suppose the Golden Gate, at 84 years, is the safer bet.
Another thing about the Bay Bridge is that at least some of the large bolts were made from galvanized steel, which apparently doesn’t play well with salt. So basically, they used a corrosion-vulnerable form of steel in a bridge going through salty air over a body of salt water.
Oops.
Hey, union bosses gotta eat, you know.
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