Strange device + bridge = long commute home

closeHey, just so you know ... this post is now about 14 years and 10 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

On my way home via-275 South through Tampa yesterday afternoon traffic came to a sudden stop. Eventually I was able to see that a police officer was blocking the left two lanes that lead to the Howard Frankland bridge, one of the four bridges across the bay and the main portion of my commute home.

The officer was directing traffic onto the Veteran’s Expressway, which is backed up at that time of day normally, so now we had two additional lanes of traffic needing to merge into those two lanes. Finally I made it past the airport and onto the Courtney Campbell Causeway and finished my drive home.

So, what was the problem? Major accident? Structural collapse? No … it was a bomb scare. Apparently someone noticed a strange device attached to one of the pillars of the bridge and the bomb squad was called in.

The device turned out to be a gizmo being used by the Department of Transportation to measure saltwater levels and corrosion on the area bridges. Oops! This reminded me of the bomb scare in Boston a few years back that turned out to be a viral marketing campaign by the Cartoon Network.

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