Selmon Expressway Gets $362M Makeover With Extra Lanes, Bridge Upgrades by 2030

The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority will kick off a $362 million expansion this May. One lane gets added in each direction from west of Himes Avenue to east of Florida Avenue. Construction runs through 2030. Twenty-six bridges will be upgraded, and tolls won't go up.

The work targets the oldest stretch between Gandy Boulevard and Florida Avenue. Traffic there has ballooned 80% since 2015 — a staggering jump that's created congestion during peak hours. Greg Deese, Director of Operations and Engineering for THEA, said the bottleneck gets jammed when MacDill Air Force Base workers head home alongside new residents flooding the area.

"One of our biggest congestion points right now is eastbound in the afternoon coming from MacDill," said Deese, according to WTSP. "This project is designed to alleviate a lot of that congestion."

The Hillsborough River Bridge near the convention center will get a major overhaul. Plans call for a "distinctive entryway" into downtown Tampa. Greg Slater, CEO of the authority, said crews will rebuild all bridges and reconstruct the entire stretch within existing right-of-way — no land grabs required.

"We're going to redo all of underpasses," said Slater, according to Fox 13 News. "We're going to construct everything within the existing right-of-way that we own today and then create some additional community features."

New spaces will appear underneath the expressway to connect neighborhoods on either side. Noise walls go up in residential areas. Sound from traffic will drop.

Vicki Key lives next to the expressway in Hyde Park. She said the noise walls will make her backyard usable again. "I'm real glad with the proposal the way it is," she said. "It's going to make it so wonderful because then my backyard is going to be livable."

If everything pans out, side streets like Bayshore and Westshore Boulevards should see less traffic — GPS apps won't be sending drivers there as detours. Construction starts at the downtown exit bottleneck and moves west toward Gandy. Simple.

Lane closures happen at night only. Crews start by clearing trees for new lanes. Orange barricades show up in the coming weeks. Surplus toll money pays for the entire project — not a single tax dollar involved.

A community open house was held Monday evening at the Kate Jackson Community Center on Rome Avenue. The expansion marks the largest capacity increase since the western extension finished in 2021, a milestone that reshaped how commuters move through the region.