Traffic Could Begin Moving Across Tampa Bay's Howard Frankland Bridge in Early 2025
The $865 million Howard Frankland Bridge over Tampa Bay is set for completion in early 2025, boasting toll-free lanes with an express option, a walkway for pedestrians and bikers, and fortified design for storm resilience. Traffic flow expected by January or February.
Mon August 19, 2024 - Southeast Edition #18 Tampa Bay Times
Drivers could hop on the new $865.3 million Howard Frankland Bridge over Tampa Bay as early as this coming January or February.
That is the word from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), which confirmed in mid-August that the last of the major construction phases is under way. Pending no delays from the busiest months of Florida's hurricane season, construction is expected to wrap up in early 2025.
The new, 5.8-mi.-long bridge, which carries Interstate 275 from Tampa southwest to St. Petersburg, will feature four toll-free lanes headed south, plus two toll-express southbound lanes. Two toll lanes headed northeast toward Tampa will be divided by a barrier wall. In addition, pedestrians and bikers will have a 12-ft.-wide walkway spanning the structure.
The Tampa Bay Times reported that the current southbound bridge, built in the 1990s, will switch directions, offering four toll-free lanes from St. Petersburg to Tampa. The current northbound bridge, which opened in January 1960, will be closed and demolished in 2026.
Right now, the Howard Frankland has two spans: a southbound and a northbound side, each with four toll-free lanes. Previous reports projected the new express lanes could cost drivers between 15 cents and $2 per mile.
Most of the structural work underpinning the bridge's surface is complete. All the concrete pilings that comprise its foundation have been driven, and all but five of the horizontal beams that will connect spans of roadway are laid flat, noted David Alonso, construction project manager of FDOT.
The deck, or concrete roadway, is a little over three-quarters complete, the agency said. By January or February, the road will be smooth and ready to go, said Marianne Brinson, senior project engineer of AtkinsRéalis, a Canadian firm overseeing the Howard Frankland construction.
Following that, crews will apply the bridge's finishing touches, including barrier walls, signs, message boards and lighting.
The project's completion in 2025 will cap off a process that began in November 2020.
Last summer, the most visible component of the project began with concrete pours to construct the bridge's roadway decks.
"Most people are shocked at all the progress, but it's kind of funny," Alonso said. "We've been working for way longer than a year, it's just most of the project was invisible underwater."
In early August, the waters of Tampa Bay lapped dozens of feet below huge gaps in the middle of the bridge where beams are planned to be set. At the same time, aluminum and steel rebar were ready to bear the weight of cars, but concrete had not yet been poured. Alonso told the Times that that work will be done by November or December.
The middle of the Howard Franklin and its roadway approaches from the land need the most work, he added.
Fending Off Storm Damage
Brinson said that the projected completion window for the new bridge could change if forecasts for an "extremely active" hurricane season this year hold true.
Still, a newly completed Howard Frankland is designed specifically to withstand worsening storms. High waters from Hurricane Debby, which recently lashed through Tampa Bay as a tropical storm, damaged the seawall and shoulder of the current northbound section of the bridge, according to the Times.
While parts of the old span sit on top of sand, stone underlies the new bridge's most vulnerable portions, a protection against erosion, Alonso said.
But storms also are the enemy of progress.
Days before Debby hit Florida in early August, construction on the new Howard Frankland halted in preparation for the storm. Tugboats pulled floating cranes away from the bridge and amassed them in a structure dubbed "crane island."
If crews spend more days meticulously protecting the new bridge from storms, construction may last longer, Brinson said.
When finished, the new Howard Frankland structure will be 168 ft. wide — nearly three times the width of its southbound predecessor — and the largest by surface area of any other bridge in Florida.
