Florida’s new 4.8km Howard Frankland Bridge (also known as the Howard Franklin Bridge) is now open, speeding traffic flow. Costing $865 million, the bridge has been built by Archer Western Construction, part of The Walsh Group. The project is one of several boosting connectivity for the Tampa Bay area.
With the completion of the new link, demolition work for the old bridge is now underway. The new bridge links to the Gateway Expressway, which was completed recently, as well as the I-275 Express project. The $600 million Gateway Expressway project added two new toll road stretches and provides links between the Bayside Bridge, US19 and I-275. In addition, the new express lanes added to I-275 have boosted capacity and reduced delays.
Designed to the latest standards and built to withstand hurricane forces, the new bridge offers a capacity increase of 50% over the old link and features general-purpose as well as express lanes. It has four lanes of traffic in either direction that are free for use, as well as two express lanes in either direction that are tolled. A dynamic tolling system is featured with charges relating to traffic volumes. There will be facilities for vulnerable road users as the new bridge will have a pedestrian and bicycle path, which will be ready in 2026.
The initial span for the old bridge was completed in 1959 and despite the addition of more lanes in the 1990s, this was no longer able to cope with the 250,000 vehicles/day using the route. Work commenced on the new bridge in 2020 and now that it is in use,it will cut journey times and congestion for drivers.
