Howard Frankland Southbound Lanes To Close For 6 Hours
Work continues on the Howard Frankland Bridge. This won’t impact most drivers, but if you drive during the overnight hours in to Pinellas from Hillsborough, set a reminder. The southbound lanes on the bridge will close starting at 11pm Monday. They should be back open by 5am Tuesday, according to Channel 8.
Crews will be putting up new signs for the Gateway Expressway project. Drivers trying to cross the Howard Frankland southbound during the closure will be forced to exit at Dale Mabry, head south and then jump on the Gandy Bridge.
The Gateway Expressway project is constructing two new 2-lane elevated tolled roadways that will provide direct connections between US 19 and I-275, and the Bayside Bridge (north of 49th Street N) and I-275. [Source: Channel 8]
What a Completed Howard Frankland Bridge Will Look Like
Updated June 2024
As you drive over the Howard Frankland Bridge, you see progress, but it’s still pretty tough to imagine what all of this work is going to look like upon completion. Work won’t finish until late 2025 according to the Florida Department of Transportation. The cost is expected to be about $865 million. Not patient enough to wait until 2025 to see what this is all going to look like? Nor am I. Here’s a sneak preview from artist renditions shared by the Florida Department of Transportation.
A new southbound/westbound (from Tampa to St. Pete) bridge is what you see currently being built north of the current southbound/westbound bridge. It’ll have 8 lanes – 4 for general use and 4 express lanes. There’s a bike and pedestrian path in the plan. The bridge we use now to go from Tampa to St. Pete will become the new northbound/eastbound part of 275 once the new bridge is ready. The bridge we use to go from St. Pete to Tampa will be taken down.
Bridge Progress
As of May 2024:
– 100% of pilings have been driven.
– 99% of bridge footings have been completed.
– 98% of bridge columns have been completed.
– 92% of bridge caps have been completed.
– 77% of the bridge superstructure beams have been placed.
– 71% of bridge decks placed.
Not only are they making major progress on the structure of the bridge. But they have also finally repaved the 2 right lanes by the Martin Luther King JR exit. I’d imagine that the nice weather and lack of rain has helped them get some of this progress completed.
Many complain that this won’t help with our traffic flow, especially with the malfunction junction exit going into the Veteran’s/Clearwater. Well, don’t worry. The FDOT is on that too, as apart of the Westshore Interchange reconstruction project.
Here’s what a completed Howard Frankland Bridge will look like plus some updated photos from May 2024
Hear Geno on the air weekday afternoons. Geno's passions include fat guy food, concerts, sports, travel to Europe and South America. He loves 80s and 90s music, from MTV hairbands to old school freestyle, alternative rock to TRL era jams. Geno's radio career began in his hometown of Portland, Maine. Since then he's been on the air coast to coast from Boston to Las Vegas, Tampa to California.
