I-275 in St. Petersburg: Exits, Tolls and Construction

In St. Petersburg, I-275 runs from Exit 16 at Skyway Lane and Pinellas Point Drive north to Exit 32 at 4th Street North, with I-175 (Exit 22) and I-375 (Exits 23 and 23A) as the two downtown spurs (FDOT interstate exit numbers).

South of Exit 16 the FDOT list continues to Exit 5 (US 19 South) and Exit 2 (US 41 South), on the far side of the Sunshine Skyway, a crossing with its own St. Petersburg guide. North of 4th Street North it becomes the Howard Frankland Bridge over Old Tampa Bay; the FDOT list jumps from Exit 32 straight to Exit 39, SR 60 in Tampa, with no exit listed in between (FDOT).

The two spurs matter for anyone headed to the waterfront: I-175 East leaves at Exit 22 and I-375 East at Exits 23 and 23A (FDOT exit list). The third column of the table is a plain description of where each road leads, not FDOT wording. FDOT calls I-275 a critical evacuation route in Pinellas County (FDOT Tampa Bay Next).

The Howard Frankland Bridge carrying I-275 from St. Petersburg to Tampa was rebuilt: a new southbound bridge opened in 2025, express lanes opened in summer 2026, and tolls on those lanes started August 22, 2026 (FDOT Howard Frankland Bridge project; Tampa Bay Next).

FDOT lists the project as 5.8 miles long, running from 4th St in Pinellas to SR 60 in Hillsborough, with a construction cost of $973.4 million and the Archer Western/Traylor Bros Joint Venture as contractor; work started in Spring 2020 and the estimated completion is still shown as late 2026 (FDOT).

The crossing now has four southbound general use lanes and two express lanes in each direction (Tampa Bay Next). The 1990s span that once carried St. Petersburg drivers south now carries northbound general use traffic, and the original span was removed. FDOT is not consistent on that span's age: the Tampa Bay Next page says the original bridge was constructed in 1959 with a second structure added in 1991, while the project page calls the removed span the original 1960s bridge (Tampa Bay Next; project page).

A 12-foot-wide, barrier-separated shared-use path now runs along the north side of the Howard Frankland Bridge. FDOT puts its length at nearly seven miles and lists four shaded overlooks along it; it is open every day from sunrise to sunset from the north end of 4th Street in St. Petersburg and the south end of Reo Street in Tampa (FDOT). The posted limit across the bridge became 65 MPH on August 22, 2026, dropping to 55 MPH in the work zones on either side (FDOT).

On August 28, 2026 FDOT said the Howard Frankland Bridge project added 50% more capacity and serves over 200,000 daily drivers, and that it was a regional winner in the Operations Excellence Large Project category of the 2026 America's Transportation Awards (FDOT news release). FDOT also says a portion of the new bridge can hold additional weight for potential future transit, up to a light rail transit system (Tampa Bay Next).

The I-275 express lanes from St. Petersburg toward Tampa are SunPass only, open to passenger vehicles, registered vanpools and buses, tolled 24 hours a day at the price on the overhead sign when a driver enters (FDOT Gateway Expressway page).

FDOT says a driver in the I-275 express lanes without an active SunPass or transponder is subject to a $25 daily violation charge, and cash and TOLL-BY-PLATE are not accepted in those lanes (FDOT). The Gateway Expressway toll roads are different: SR 690 and SR 686A allow all vehicles and accept either SunPass or TOLL-BY-PLATE, with rates set by the number of axles and the same at every hour (FDOT).

SR 690 meets I-275 at Exit 30, which FDOT lists with SR 686 (Roosevelt Blvd) (FDOT exit list). SR 690 is a 4-lane tolled road from US 19 built in the median of 118th Avenue North, and SR 686A is a 4-lane tolled road from the Bayside Bridge built mostly in the median of Roosevelt Boulevard; the first I-275 express lanes, one each way from south of Gandy Boulevard to 4th Street North, came with it (FDOT). The toll roads and those express lanes opened at noon Friday, April 26, 2024, tolls on SR 686A and SR 690 began May 3, 2024, and FDOT reports all construction completed as of June 30, 2025 (FDOT).

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise handles the tolling on the Gateway roads and the I-275 express lanes through SunPass; the SunPass Customer Service Center is 1-888-TOLL-FLA (1-888-865-5352) (FDOT). A St. Petersburg driver who rents a car or borrows one without a transponder can still use SR 690 by plate, but should stay in the general use lanes of I-275 to avoid the express lane violation charge.

FDOT is widening 7.5 miles of I-275 through St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park, from north of 38th Avenue N to north of 4th Street N, for $340 million, with construction that began August 11, 2025 and an estimated completion of late 2030 (FDOT project 449109-1-52-01).

The project adds two tolled express lanes in each direction from north of 38th Avenue N to south of Gandy Boulevard, and one more express lane each way, for two in total, from south of Gandy Boulevard to north of 4th Street N (FDOT). It includes interchange modifications at 38th Avenue N, 54th Avenue N, Gandy Boulevard and Roosevelt Boulevard, and adds noise barriers from north of 38th Avenue N to Gandy Boulevard. Prince Contracting, LLC holds the contract (FDOT).

A 12-foot-wide shared use path is part of the same contract, along the north side of SR 688 (Ulmerton Road) from Fountain Parkway N to west of I-275, and FDOT says it will connect to the shared use path on the Howard Frankland Bridge (FDOT). FDOT says the link expands non-motorized connectivity across Tampa Bay.

Two changes already affect daily St. Petersburg trips. The work zone speed limit on I-275 from 38th Avenue N to 4th St. N was lowered to 55 MPH on Monday, December 8, 2025, and on January 27, 2026 the southbound lanes between Roosevelt Boulevard (Exit 30) and 38th Avenue N (Exit 25) shifted toward the median, creating a new merge before Gandy Boulevard for traffic coming out of the southbound express lane (FDOT). FDOT says that shift and merge will stay in place for the next phases of the work.

The St. Petersburg widening is a Moving Florida Forward project; FDOT says that initiative came out of the 2023 Legislative Session and that $4 billion from the General Revenue Surplus was dedicated to it (FDOT).

As posted on October 18, 2026, the southbound I-275 Exit 25 ramp to 38th Avenue N in St. Petersburg has been closed since October 5, 2026 for about two months and is expected to reopen in mid-December, weather permitting (FDOT closures).

The signed detour for that closure continues south on I-275 past Exit 25 to the 22nd Avenue N exit (Exit 24), turns right onto 22nd Avenue N, then right onto US 19 (34th Street N) and north to 38th Avenue N (FDOT detour). FDOT lists the ramp work as widening, drainage, lighting and other work.

Two other closures are on the same project page. On 62nd Avenue N, approaching and under the I-275 overpass, the right lane is closed in each direction around the clock through about December 2026, and eastbound Gandy Boulevard at I-275 has lane closures from 8 p.m. Sunday, October 18 to 5:30 a.m. Monday, October 19 (FDOT). The Howard Frankland Bridge project page shows no closures at this time (FDOT).

The FDOT Tampa Bay project page posts the current closures and offers email alerts for the St. Petersburg widening. The project information line for the widening is (813) 975-6930, the bridge project line is 813-975-6204, and FDOT media relations for both is 813-975-6060 (FDOT; FDOT).

Two more St. Petersburg widenings are in design without construction funding: north of I-375 to north of 38th Avenue North (2 miles, express lanes) and 54th Avenue S to I-375 (4.6 miles) (FDOT; FDOT).

The northern design project would widen I-275 between I-375 and 38th Avenue N to provide two tolled express lanes in each direction, with wider roadway and bridges and new noise barriers (FDOT project 449109-2-52-01). FDOT describes it as extending the express lane network south to north of I-375, tying the downtown end of St. Petersburg into the lanes now being built to the north (Tampa Bay Next).

The southern design project, from north of 54th Avenue S to I-375, lists no express lanes; it is for lane continuity and operational improvements, with wider roadway and bridges, noise barriers and a new entrance ramp at 31st Street (FDOT project 424501-7-52-01). Because neither St. Petersburg project has construction money on the FDOT pages, no start date can be given yet.

Downtown, the city is working to remediate the impacts of the I-175 spur. On January 10, 2025 the City of St. Petersburg announced $1,387,038 from the U.S. Department of Transportation for the Reconnecting the Historic Gas Plant District Project, saying I-175 construction in the late 1970s uprooted many families of the historic African American neighborhoods, including the Gas Plant District (City of St. Petersburg). The city says the funding will be used for the two-way conversion and lane reallocation of 8th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street, with activities that include a community engagement plan, planning and preliminary engineering including concept design, and an equity assessment; the project stems from the 2022 Downtown St. Petersburg Mobility Study with Forward Pinellas; the city was one of three Florida municipalities to win a Reconnecting Communities award in that cycle (City of St. Petersburg).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the FDOT Tampa Bay pages for the I-275 widening, the Howard Frankland Bridge and the Gateway Expressway, the FDOT exit list and the City of St. Petersburg I-175 grant release.