Lee Roy Selmon Expressway in Tampa, Florida

The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway is the east-west toll road that crosses Tampa from the Gandy Boulevard area of South Tampa through downtown to Brandon and Interstate 75.

It is owned, maintained and operated by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, known as THEA, which describes itself as an independent agency of the state. THEA operates four facilities in Hillsborough County: the Selmon Expressway, the Brandon Parkway, Meridian Avenue and the Selmon Greenway.

THEA's Selmon Expressway page describes a 17-mile, all-electronic toll road linking Pinellas County, West Hillsborough County, Downtown Tampa, Brandon and Southern Hillsborough County. It feeds into downtown Tampa and is, in the authority's description, the most direct route for residents and visitors commuting into and out of MacDill Air Force Base. Official figures for the length differ: Hillsborough County's history page, last modified January 30, 2024, gives 15 miles from Gandy to Interstate 75 in Brandon and estimates that about 100,000 motorists travel the road daily, while THEA's current page says 17 miles.

The road opened in 1976 as the Crosstown Expressway and was renamed for Lee Roy Selmon in 1999, according to Hillsborough County.

Hillsborough County records that the first segment opened in 1976, running from Gandy Boulevard to downtown Tampa. Detractors called the elevated east-west road a white elephant because, they said, too few motorists paid to drive on it.

THEA explains on its statue page that the authority initiated the renaming and that, as with all state road designations, it required approval from the Florida Legislature: a process that included a local recommendation, a bill introduction, passage by both chambers and the governor's signature.

Selmon was the first player taken by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the team's inaugural NFL draft in 1976, the overall first pick, and in 1995 he became Tampa Bay's first inductee into the NFL Hall of Fame, according to Hillsborough County. After his playing career he stayed in Hillsborough County, first as a bank executive and then with the University of South Florida athletic department, where he took over as director in 2001. He died on September 4, 2011, at age 56. THEA's tribute on the Selmon Greenway is an 8-foot, heroic-scale statue at Florida Avenue and Brorein Street in downtown Tampa by Oklahoma sculptor Joel Randell, cast in 800 pounds of hollowed bronze and showing Selmon in his Tampa Bay Buccaneers #63 jersey.

The Selmon Reversible Express Lanes are an upper deck between Southern Hillsborough County and downtown Tampa that carries traffic toward downtown on weekday mornings and toward Brandon the rest of the day.

THEA's REL page describes the express lanes as reversing direction based on peak travel patterns, carrying traffic into Tampa each morning and back toward Brandon each evening, while the local lanes below serve drivers making stops before downtown Tampa. The authority describes the REL as the first all-electronic reversible express lanes in the US.

On weekdays, THEA lists the REL as westbound toward downtown Tampa from 5:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. and eastbound toward Brandon from 12:00 p.m. to 4:15 a.m., with times approximate and subject to change. The authority says it opens the lanes westbound at 5 a.m. because westbound traffic from Southern Hillsborough County begins to increase as early as 3 a.m. on weekdays. Before each change of direction the lanes go through a brief transition to clear all vehicles, and the Brandon entrance closes shortly before the westbound to eastbound transition each day.

On weekends the REL runs eastbound toward Brandon all day without reversal. THEA's holiday schedule, also eastbound all day, covers Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day; other holidays, such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, keep the regular weekday reversal. THEA states that the upper deck is the same toll cost as the local lanes below, and credits the REL with easing traffic at US 301, 78th Street and the I-4 Connector by spreading drivers across both decks.

Selmon Expressway tolls for 2-axle vehicles run from $0.75 to $2.18 with SunPass under THEA rates effective July 1, 2026, with higher toll-by-plate rates.

The road has no cash toll booths. THEA's toll map and calculator lists the rates below. A REL trip costs the same as the East Main Plaza at 78th Street in Tampa.

*THEA states that toll-by-plate tolls are subject to an administration fee.

THEA states that all revenues collected on the Selmon Expressway stay in Tampa and Hillsborough County, where they are reinvested. The authority's map page notes that, through the Selmon West Extension, drivers can join the expressway at the south end of the Gandy Bridge and drive all the way to I-75 in Brandon without a stoplight.

THEA added two REL slip ramps near I-75 and the I-4 connector in 2022 and 2023 and is planning added lanes on the South Selmon in Tampa.

Its slip ramp project, identified during the East Selmon Project Development and Environment study, added a westbound entry ramp to the REL from northbound I-75 and a westbound exit ramp near the I-4 connector, close to IKEA. Construction began in January 2022 and was completed in the fall of 2023, ahead of schedule. THEA reports data showing over 300 fewer vehicles exiting at the REL terminus at Twiggs Street and Meridian Parkway during the peak morning rush hour, easing downtown streets and cutting commuter traffic feeding into Bayshore Boulevard.

The next major project is on the older western section. THEA's South Selmon Capacity Project will add one lane in each direction over an approximate 4.5-mile span, from the eastern end of the Selmon Extension to the six-lane section near the Whiting Street overpass in downtown Tampa. THEA will also enhance lighting, landscaping, sidewalks and paint at every underpass on the route, has committed to sound walls, and says the project will help keep cut-through traffic off Bayshore and other neighborhood roads.

A study measured the road's value to commuters. In an August 24, 2026 THEA release, the authority reported that an economic impact study by the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research found the Selmon Expressway saves the average commuter approximately 29 hours each year, and that THEA's investments and operations have generated approximately $2.1 billion in regional gross domestic product since its inception, up from $1.6 billion in THEA's 2022 study. The release adds that more than 16,700 businesses, nearly 20 percent of all businesses in Hillsborough County, and nearly 170,000 jobs are within one mile of the expressway. Business Observer reported the 29-hour finding the next day.

The Selmon Greenway is a 1.7-mile multi-use trail that THEA built under the Selmon Expressway through downtown Tampa.

THEA says the trail runs east to west, mostly in the shade of the expressway, and connects with the City of Tampa's Riverwalk and the authority's Meridian Avenue Trail. Along the route the authority has built a series of pocket parks with landscaping, benches and artwork, and its Greenway page notes that THEA partnered with the City of Tampa and the Tampa Riverwalk to create the trail.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against THEA's toll map and calculator, REL schedule, Selmon Expressway and Greenway pages, project pages, statue page and August 24, 2026 study release, and the Hillsborough County Faces Behind the Places entry on the expressway.