Heads up, Tampa commuters: Wednesday morning could get a little hectic near the Tampa Convention Center. If you're one to loathe the extra minutes spent drumming on the steering wheel, listen well. It's the Hillsborough Regional STEM Fair day, set to shuffle in close to 2,000 students, parents, and teachers, and it's likely to throw a wrench in your usual rush hour flow.
The STEM fair, a gathering of young minds passionate about science, technology, engineering, and math, runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Don't be surprised to hit the brakes around 7:30 a.m., when the traffic starts to peak. Particularly, South Franklin Street by the convention center will see an influx of school buses around 8 a.m. The City of Tampa reports that Tampa Police will be on hand to aid the pedestrian flow at crosswalks. A hot tip for those crossing over or coming from Harbour Island: Beneficial Drive might just be your sweet escape for the duration.
And as if the STEM Fair crowd wasn’t enough, there's a second event at the convention center to double down on the traffic turmoil. The Military Additive Manufacturing Summit also calls the space home on Tuesday and Wednesday. This event itself is a magnet for roughly 900 attendees.
Regardless of where you’re heading Wednesday, allow yourself a healthy cushion of time to deal with the delays. Or better yet, maybe it's the perfect opportunity to test that podcast you've been putting off. If you need the latest on road closures or work zone updates, make a pit stop at the Tampa government’s road closure page for intel.
