ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge on I-275 can be relentless, and within 10-15 years, the northbound half of the bridge has got to go.
"You have to replace the bridge, really, because the substructure is over 50 years old in that corrosive environment," says Bob Clifford of the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA). "So, it is a new construction of a new bridge, a new span, and what you put on it is really what you're looking at now."
TBARTA already has a study underway to consider not just rebuilding a bridge for cars and congestion, but adding space on that bridge for light rail lines, creating a mass transit option across Tampa Bay.
READ: Howard Frankland Bridge Study
"It also ties in with the work going on in Pinellas County," says Clifford, who points to the importance of the discussion of light rail in Pinellas.
County and city leaders are considering a line that would stretch from Clearwater to St. Petersburg. Eventually, that local system could link up with Tampa via an expanded Howard Frankland Bridge.
WATCH: Proposed route for Pinellas light rail released
"These are the kind of things we need to look at," says St. Pete City Councilman Jeff Danner. "There is no room to sprawl, and we can't keep paving our way out of our congestion problems."
Any construction would still be years away, but the clock is ticking on the Howard Frankland's lifespan, so decisions must be made soon.