275 and Downtown Tampa interchange getting more, wider lanes to help ease traffic as work reaches 1-year mark

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Published  December 24, 2024 9:33pm EST
FOX 13 News
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Update on I-275, I-4 interchange project

Briona Arradondo reports

The Brief

    • The Florida Department of Transportation is widening I-275 north and the downtown interchange in hopes of helping to ease traffic congestion.
    • The 2.5-mile area is expected to stay busy through the middle of next year.
    • The work on the downtown interchange won't be done until 2027.

TAMPA, Fla. - With rush hour traffic around Tampa beginning earlier these days alongside the backups, the Florida Department of Transportation hopes the widening of I-275 north and the downtown interchange will help congestion.

On I-275, workers are building out extra lanes north of Tampa.

"We are creating four lanes in each direction from basically I-4 to Hanna Avenue with that project that's ongoing right now," said Austin Petersen, a construction project manager with FDOT Tampa.

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The 2.5-mile area will stay busy through the middle of next year when they expect to finish up work on the I-275 improvements project, one of several major items on FDOT’s to-do list.

"Right now, they are working kind of in the middle to do some of the connections for drainage as well as finish up some of the widening areas that are in there. It's kind of a mixture of both sides, but it'll essentially look like one new lane at the outside," said Petersen.

The project costs $96.7 million to help ease the congestion, and it connects directly into Tampa’s own "malfunction junction," the area where I-275 and I-4 merge near downtown Tampa.

Construction workers started with what’s going on underground.

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"Currently, we've been mostly working on finishing up a micro-tunnel operation, which is an underground drainage installation," Petersen said.

It’s part of the FDOT’s downtown Tampa interchange project, a problem spot with constant backups and fender benders. The $223.5 million project adds an extra lane from I-4 west to I-275 northbound and southbound. 

It builds a new exit ramp into Ybor City and more. By Nebraska Avenue, crews are building columns and foundations for the new two-lane flyover ramp bridge.

The ramp will eventually carry traffic into I-4 eastbound.

"By the end of this year, you'll be able to start seeing some of the foundations going in for the new two-lane flyover bridge," said Petersen.

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The work on the downtown Interchange won’t wrap up until 2027. Until then, drivers can expect lane closures and detours, especially at night to allow for overhead work and widening work.

By the time the work is done, the last finishing touches will go in, adding some green space to brighten up all the concrete.

"We'll have three of those pickleball courts and dog parks that will be, you know, community features as well as a shared use path network," said Petersen.

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