TAMPA, Fla. — Drivers heading to St. Petersburg from Tampa on Interstate 275 are now driving on the new span of the Howard Frankland Bridge.
The span opened Tuesday morning. Traffic was switched over Monday night into Tuesday morning.
The new span and other improvements, built at a cost of $865 million, is expected to last 100 years, according to the Florida Department of Transportation. It also is has been built to be wider and hardier in harsh weather.
The new bridge will be for southbound I-275 traffic into St. Petersburg.
The current southbound span will be flipped northbound into Tampa later this year.
Construction changes for the northbound directions won’t be seen until this summer. The old northbound span will be demolished later.
