Saturday, November 29, 2008

The Interstate275Florida.com Website Transition is Underway!

This weekend I will begin the transition of Interstate275Florida.com over to a new server along with the updated content as I discussed in a previous blog entry.

During the transition anyone accessing the Interstate275Florida.com site will be redirected to a page over at my sister site EdwardRingwald.com informing that the Interstate275Florida.com site is under maintenance. However, there will be a link to the Interstate 275 Florida Blog, which will remain open during the transition process.

Hopefully the transition should go smoothly and I’ll have the Interstate275Florida.com website back up and running as soon as possible.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

An Interstate275Florida.com web site update

Many of you have written to me asking me when I am going to update the Interstate275Florida.com website given the fact that a lot of changes have taken place due to recent construction. Some of you may be asking yourself in the back of your mind, “when will this Interstate275Florida.com site get updated, there are old photos on there?” I would like to give you an update of what I have been doing in 2008 to date to keep Interstate275Florida.com updated.

Just like Interstate 275 in the Tampa Bay area is getting a major makeover in Tampa as well as the Tampa Airport Interchanges project, I have been giving the Interstate 275 Florida web site a major makeover incorporating the changes that have taken place. I have been converting each page of the Interstate 275 Florida site from a text link to picture format to a photo gallery format where you get to see a thumbnail on the page and if you want to see the full size picture, simply click on the thumbnail to view the picture.

I have recently adopted this format over at EdwardRingwald.com, the web site for all things Edward Ringwald (that’s me!). I started this format beginning with the Drawbridges of Pinellas County and it has received a great response.

Right now I am still working out the technical issues; the bulk of changing all the St. Petersburg and Tampa pages at Interstate275Florida.com is almost complete. After I get done making sure that everything will work I will then publish the site and the end result will be an Interstate275Florida.com that is updated with the latest changes. There will be new photos that I have taken in 2008 that will replace the older photos that are currently on the site.

Moreover, my schedule has gotten hectic at times that I have only been able to devote some quality time to my websites. When your full time day job gives you more and more responsibilities you have to plan accordingly, especially in today’s economic world.

All I ask is that you please bear with me as I get ready to publish the Interstate275Florida.com site in the new format. The trickiest part ahead will be publishing it to the web server and making sure that all the web site features and links work. After all, you wouldn’t publish a site that has bad formatting or links that don’t work, among other things.

So, keep checking back here often for updates as I get ready to transition Interstate275Florida.com to a newer (and better) format. In the end will be a better Interstate275Florida.com site that will have updated photos and text that you will really like.

And speaking of Interstate 275 in Tampa…

We got a ramp closure coming up that will affect traffic entering Interstate 275 northbound at Himes Avenue (Exit 41C). This is needed as traffic will eventually be shifted to the new northbound lanes and a connector has to be built. A new entrance ramp from Himes Avenue is part of the new northbound lanes being built. According to the folks at the Florida DOT the entrance ramp at Himes Avenue is scheduled to be closed on December 1st. Here is a link to the press release from the Florida DOT at their Tampa Bay Interstates website.

So, if you are coming out of the immediate area of Himes Avenue and Interstate 275 and you want to head north, you may want to consider using Dale Mabry Highway (Exit 41) or Armenia/Howard Avenues (Exit 42) and entering northbound Interstate 275 from there. This is something you may want to take into account when you exit Raymond James Stadium on game days such as Tampa Bay Buccaneers games.

It will be inconvenient for a while, but in the end we will have an Interstate 275 that we Tampa/St. Petersburg area residents and visitors will be proud of.