Pinellas County’s Gateway Expressway is open. We checked it out.
When the Florida Department of Transportation began work on the $600 million Gateway Expressway project in 2017, it was with the acknowledgment that a burgeoning Tampa Bay region needed more highway capacity. It saw the Gateway area — where St. Petersburg’s neat grid gives way to a tangle of curvier roadways, posing a complex sequence of merge lanes and traffic lights for anyone trying to get from Interstate 275 to U.S. 19 or the Bayside Bridge — as a logical place to relieve congestion.
As of Friday, April 26, at noon, the project was officially open, including new express lanes on I-275 for a stretch of a couple of miles south of the Howard Frankland Bridge and toll roads connecting the interstate to U.S. 19 and the Bayside Bridge. For any motorist who has tried to get from Hillsborough County to Largo or Pinellas Park in a timely manner, or who commutes between south Pinellas and Clearwater, these are potentially game-changing transformations.
Tolls, according to the Department of Transportation, will be set at 50 cents each way for the interstate express lanes, 86 cents for most drivers on the connector toll roads, and 28 cents for drivers who hop on the toll road north of Ulmerton Road to bypass the airport on the way to the Bayside Bridge.
In the nearly six years I’ve lived in Pinellas County and worked at the Tampa Bay Times, I’ve spent a lot of time driving. Early in my career, I commuted every day between St. Petersburg and Brooksville. Now I cover Pinellas and drive all over the county. My girlfriend lives in Tampa, so I go back and forth over the bay a couple of times a week.
One part of Pinellas I’ve driven through a lot, then, is the Gateway, the area just south of the Howard Frankland Bridge. So when an editor asked me to take a spin through the new Gateway Expressway project and report back, I was happy to oblige. Like a lot of motorists around here, I’d be trying it sooner or later anyway.
On Friday, I didn’t need to check my SunPass balance — the roads are free for the first week. I just gassed up my 2013 Honda Fit and hit the road.
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Having spent Friday morning in Tampa, I headed across the Howard Frankland in the early afternoon, not long after the project opened to traffic. South of the bridge, I slid into the southbound express lane. Traffic was light, so being in the special lane made no difference in speed, though it did put my mind at ease. Being barricaded off from the other lanes meant I didn’t worry about maniacs weaving through traffic or 18-wheelers bleeding over the line.
From the express lane, I exited onto the elevated toll road, which was nearly empty. As it swung upward and curved to the west, I had a cinematic view of the Pinellas County Solid Waste Disposal Complex — the grassy slope of the landfill, so incongruous with the flat Florida landscape, and the imposing architecture of the county’s waste-to-energy plant.
When the toll road forked, I kept to the left and was eventually deposited near the Bayside Bridge. I’ve driven through that area many times, going to or from the airport or an assignment. Getting there via a brand-new route had the vaguely unsettling feeling of one of those dreams where you’re in your house but all the hallways are jumbled up.
I made my way to U.S. 19 and got on the toll road again, this time back toward the interstate. Here I realized something: The new road meant that I would never again have to encounter the Left Turn Of Doom — the interchange between U.S. 19 and Gandy Boulevard, part of my usual route home from covering County Commission meetings in Clearwater. Though traffic there doesn’t back up so badly since the Department of Transportation added an extra turn lane last year, approaching it still fills me with dread. Avoiding that feeling? Worth 86 cents.
A little while later, I met up with a colleague, photographer Jeff Woo, and he rode shotgun for a couple more laps through the new project. Here’s one lesson learned: As we headed north on I-275, I once again got in the express lane, thoughtlessly expecting that it would lead me straight to the toll road. Nope! To do that, I would’ve had to take Exit 30, as I should have known. Being stuck in the express lane until it ended meant we had no choice but to cross the Howard Frankland and double back.
Rush hour was coming and I-275 was starting to feel miserable, but the toll roads were nearly empty. I figured it would take drivers a while to adapt to the new option. It’s too early to say whether the new roads will make driving through the Gateway more pleasant for everyone.
Once Jeff and I had our fill, we wound up back on the interstate, headed to St. Petersburg, outside the realm of the project. Soon we encountered a jam where the southbound express lane ended and merged into the regular lanes. A couple of vehicles were askew, though it looked like they’d avoided any collision. We crawled along for a bit. As long as there are cars, I figured, there will be traffic.
