TAMPA — State officials unveiled a new vision for the future Howard Frankland Bridge on Thursday. It will look far different from what commuters are used to driving today:
There will be two bridges with a total of eight free lanes and two express toll lanes that drivers will have to pay to use.
In order to get there, a new span must be built to the north of the existing ones. It will carry traffic south into St. Petersburg.
The new, six-lane structure will also include toll lanes going in both directions. They will be separated from the other lanes by a concrete barrier. The toll lanes will also be divided from each other.
The lanes on the existing southbound span will then be reversed, sending traffic north into Tampa.
Then the current northbound span — the original Howard Frankland Bridge, which opened in 1960 — will be torn down.
The revised bridge plan is a sharp reversal from the Florida Department of Transportation’s old plan, which sought to convert an existing lane in each direction into a toll lane, leaving only three lanes for drivers who didn’t want to pay to cross the bay. Those tolls would have fluctuated between 15 cents and $2 a mile, depending on traffic.
That was the plan on the books for years, but most elected officials said they didn’t realize it until the Tampa Bay Times reported the loss of a free lane in September.
After facing harsh criticism, the DOT said it wouldn’t put a toll on an existing lane. The new bridge plan wasn’t supposed to be ready until June, but now officials plan to hold public hearings on this latest vision in the spring.
Bill Jones, the recently hired director of transportation development for the DOT’s local office, presented the updated plan to Tampa City Council members at a community redevelopment area meeting.
“The recommended concept has changed,” Jones said, “and we are now having four nontoll lanes in either direction as well as the express lanes on the Howard Frankland Bridge.”
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