TAMPA, Fla — The final beam was placed on the new Howard Frankland Bridge as construction nears end.
FDOT announced the beam placement on Thursday.
"We celebrate laying the last beam on the new Howard Frankland Bridge, which will modernize and expand the infrastructure, and it's designed to last for 100 years," said David Gwynn, the FDOT District 7 Secretary. "This is a major new component to our infrastructure system in the Tampa Bay region."
It's not the only milestone.
FDOT also said 100 percent of bridge footings, columns, and caps have been completed.
"I think everybody knows as the bridges have gotten older, traffic's gotten more congested on the Howard Frankland Bridge that connects Pinellas and Hillsborough counties," said Gwynn. "We're going to be adding a number of new lanes to this bridge, which will extremely improve the capacity, and so it'll allow for people to get to and from their destinations much more efficiently."
Some drivers wonder how much it'll help, while others welcome the relief.
"I wonder when all these cars are coming and going, where are they going to go into?" said driver Dianne Rossi. "Even though it's widening, where's it going to go into, so I'm curious to see what's going to happen."
"The area needs some relief from the traffic issues, so it's going to be great," said driver Scott Daniels. "I'm sure it will move a lot faster and take some of the pressure off the other bridges too."
Crews still have some work to do, including finishing deck sections and the bridge traffic rail barrier wall.
FDOT said the schedule is on trackto shift traffic to the new bridge next spring.
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