The Howard Frankland bridge spans Old Tampa
Bay between the cities of Tampa and St Petersburg Florida along I-275. It was first designed in the late 1950s by
Russian engineers through a Soviet-
American engineer exchange program which also saw the development of the St Petersburg Russia
metro system by
American engineers.
It was immediately apparent however that the Soviet engineers did not understand the concept of traffic, or of automobiles in general as it was immediately snarled by poorly designed intersections and safety features which although advanced for the USSR were at least 50 years behind western standards at that time.
Out of shame most of the engineers working on the design of the bridge were sent to the gulags and the
head engineer was tried and summarily
shot. For this action the mayors of both St Petersburg and Tampa sent thank you letters to
Russian officials, but this Soviet justice did little to alleviate the suffering of Bay Area residents which continues unabated to this day. Traffic continues to flow inefficiently leading into Tampa as the road narrows from
4 northbound lanes down to two as it passes the Westshore intersection also known as soul crushing alley.
There have been plans throughout the bridges
history to alleviate the congestion through a complete redesign, but adhering to its policy of not doing anything useful ever, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is not taking action either now or in the immediate future.
