The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will make improvements to four major Tampa thoroughfares this year.
The goal of the Downtown Tampa Interchange Project is to improve road conditions along the Interstate 275 and Interstate 4 interchange. Crews will add a lane to reduce traffic and crashes.
“It’s very important for traffic in the area. We’re going to be adding essentially an additional lane of capacity to most of the major movements here in the interchange, which will help thru-put as well as helping to reduce the congestion that can lead to crashes,” said Austin Petersen, construction project manager for FDOT.
The project will be completed in 2027.
The new Howard Franklin Bridge Project began in 2020, and it is expected to finish in early 2026. FDOT will begin switching traffic to the new bridge this spring.
“In the final configuration, you’ll have the new bridge will have four general purpose lanes, that’ll go towards Pinellas County. And we’ll also have two express lanes in both directions towards Pinellas County, towards Tampa and there will be a lot more capacity and opportunity for drivers,” said Petersen.
The I-275 Capacity Improvement project will go from north of I-4 to north of Hillsborough Avenue. Crews will expand the three lanes to four lanes in each direction.
“As we’re kind of wrapping here, commuters can start to see that we’re going to be opening sections of I-275 to the additional 4th lane,” said Petersen.
Crews are in the final phase of the project.
Tampa’s Westshore Interchange project is FDOT’s largest job in Tampa.
“It’s a big job. It’s a billion-dollar project, and it’s a very complex interchange with a lot of bridges,” said Zachary Stringer, special projects construction manager for FDOT.
The project will revamp how motorists and pedestrians move through the area. Construction is scheduled to begin this spring.
“We’re currently in the design phase. We’ve been in the design phase since early 2023. We had a planning phase, then we’re in what’s called pre-construction, and we’ll get into actual construction on some early projects in spring of 2025,” said Stringer.
Because it’s such a big project, it will take 8 years to complete, so crews hope to wrap up around 2031 or 2032.
Source: WFTS, MSN
