Sunshine Skyway Bridge: Tolls, Construction and History

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge carries I-275 over Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg to the Manatee County side, although Florida State Parks describes the crossing as connecting St. Petersburg with Sarasota.

FDOT lists the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (I-275) across Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties on its toll schedule (FDOT toll rates), and Florida State Parks describes the current bridge as built over Tampa Bay connecting St. Petersburg with Sarasota (Florida State Parks). The two agencies differ on the far end: the FDOT county list names Manatee, not Sarasota.

On the St. Petersburg side, the current FDOT water main project covers I-275/US 19 from north of the Skyway fishing pier to south of Pinellas Point Drive (FDOT Tampa Bay). FDOT files its bridge maintenance work under City St. Petersburg, County Pinellas, with a project length of 4.2 miles on I-275 Sunshine Skyway (FDOT Tampa Bay).

Beside the main bridge sit the remains of the earlier Skyway, now the north and south piers of Skyway Fishing Pier State Park, whose listed address is 4905 34th St. South #5000, St. Petersburg (Florida State Parks).

The Sunshine Skyway toll for a two axle car is $1.16 with SunPass or $1.62 by Toll-By-Plate, charged once per direction at all-electronic plazas under FDOT rates effective April 12, 2026.

The Skyway has two toll points: the North Plaza at mile post 15 charges southbound drivers leaving St. Petersburg, and the South Plaza at mile post 6 charges northbound drivers heading back into Pinellas (FDOT toll rates). Both plazas post the same rates, and the FDOT map marks each as a Toll Plaza (All-Electronic).

For a St. Petersburg household that crosses into Manatee County and back, a round trip in a car costs $2.32 with SunPass and $3.24 by Toll-By-Plate at the April 12, 2026 rates (FDOT toll rates). A five axle truck pays $4.64 per crossing with SunPass and $6.48 by plate, the widest SunPass to Toll-By-Plate gap in the table.

The gap adds up for anyone who commutes over the bay. At the April 12, 2026 rates, a St. Petersburg resident who crosses the Sunshine Skyway and returns on 250 workdays a year pays $580 with SunPass ($2.32 a day) and $810 by Toll-By-Plate ($3.24 a day), a $230 difference that comes straight from the two FDOT rate columns (FDOT toll rates). Southbound trips are billed at the North Plaza and northbound trips at the South Plaza, so a one way trip is always a single toll.

FDOT has two Skyway projects on the St. Petersburg side: a $3.1 million routine maintenance job on the bridge from Fall 2026 to Fall 2027, and a $7.8 million water main replacement along I-275 due to finish in late 2026.

On the maintenance job, crews will apply new protective coatings to the median and traffic barriers and replace the expansion joints along the median slab to improve durability and extend the life of the structure (FDOT Tampa Bay). The FDOT factsheet for the Skyway work was last updated 09/17/2026 and keeps the Fall 2026 start (FDOT factsheet).

The second project replaces a water main and force main at I-275 and US 19 from north of the Skyway fishing pier to south of Pinellas Point Drive, with construction expected to finish in late 2026 (FDOT Tampa Bay).

The FDOT factsheet for the water main project was last updated 01/09/2026 and still gives late 2026 for completion (FDOT factsheet), so with the year nearly over, the finish date on the Pinellas Point Drive stretch is worth rechecking before planning around it.

A practical note for St. Petersburg commuters: as of October 15, 2026 the Skyway maintenance page lists the contractor and the Fall 2026 start and says there are no closures at this time, so the project email alerts described below are the earliest place a closure will appear.

Drivers get Sunshine Skyway work and closure notices by subscribing to email alerts on each FDOT Tampa Bay project page, which covers both the bridge maintenance and the Pinellas Point water main work.

Each FDOT Tampa Bay project page carries a sign up form to receive email alerts and closures for that project, and the confirmations come from [email protected] (FDOT Tampa Bay). The maintenance page is project 445829-1-52-01 and the water main page is project 451949-1-52-01 (FDOT Tampa Bay), so a St. Petersburg commuter who crosses daily can follow both.

Closures on the old bridge are a separate matter run by Florida State Parks. Effective October 27, 2025, after structural inspections by the Florida Department of Transportation, vehicle and pedestrian access beyond the bait shop ended at Skyway Fishing Pier State Park, and a notice effective March 16, 2026 says the south Skyway is currently without power, with limited service at the bait shop and limited lighting at night (Florida State Parks).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Department of Transportation and Florida State Parks websites, for the Sunshine Skyway tolls, projects and piers.

The original Sunshine Skyway opened in 1954, lost 1,200 feet of its span when a freighter struck it on May 9, 1980, and a new Sunshine Skyway Bridge was constructed in 1987.

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge opened to the public in 1954, and in 1969 a matching structure was built parallel to it to make a four lane crossing (Florida State Parks history). For 26 years large ships passed under the Tampa Bay span without incident.

During a violent thunderstorm on May 9, 1980, the freighter Summit Venture struck one of the western columns, and 1,200 feet of bridge fell; six vehicles and a Greyhound bus went into the water and 35 people died (Florida State Parks history).

In 1987 a new Sunshine Skyway Bridge was constructed, and in 1992 the center spans of the old bridge were demolished, with salvaged debris placed as artificial reefs alongside the piers (Florida State Parks history). In 1994 the remaining sections opened as Skyway Fishing Pier State Park.

That sequence explains the view on the drive south from St. Petersburg today: the 1987 bridge carries I-275 traffic, while the remaining sections of the old bridge serve as fishing piers, and the reef material from the demolished center spans lies in Tampa Bay alongside them (Florida State Parks history).

Yes, the old Skyway approaches are Skyway Fishing Pier State Park, open 24 hours a day for $4 per vehicle plus $4 per adult, though vehicle and pedestrian access beyond the bait shop is no longer allowed.

Florida State Parks says that when the new bridge went up over Tampa Bay, the old one was turned into the world's longest fishing pier, with piers on the north and south sides of the mouth of the bay (Florida State Parks). The park lists its location as 4905 34th St. South #5000, St. Petersburg FL 33711, and its phone as 727-865-0668.

Species, licenses and the full pier rules are covered in the St. Petersburg fishing guide on this site; for a Skyway driver, the useful point is that the piers have their own Florida State Parks hours, fees and notices.