The Howard Frankland Bridge's $865 million reconstruction cleared two simultaneous milestones: northbound express lanes opened to traffic, and the 7-mile HFB Trail — a shared path for cyclists and pedestrians running between 4th Street North in St. Petersburg and Reo Street in Tampa — came online alongside them.
Both represent the most publicly visible returns from one of the largest bridge expansion programs in Florida in recent years. The Howard Frankland carries heavy cross-bay traffic between Tampa and St. Pete, and the construction program has reshaped commutes on both sides of the water for the duration of the project.
The express lanes are operating toll-free during the current testing phase. Southbound lanes are expected to follow, though no confirmed timeline accompanied the announcement. When complete, the full express-lane corridor will give commuters a faster alternative to the general-purpose lanes that have absorbed the full load of cross-bay traffic during construction.
The HFB Trail is the project's more structurally novel element. At seven miles, it is the only shared-use path across the Howard Frankland and offers protected bayfront views for the entire crossing — conditions unavailable on this span in any prior iteration of the bridge, which has carried only vehicular traffic through multiple reconstruction cycles. The trail connects 4th Street North in St. Pete, where cyclists and pedestrians can link to the city's street network, to Reo Street in Tampa on the western approach.
The addition of the trail addresses a gap that cycling advocates have raised for years: while the Courtney Campbell Causeway and the Gandy Bridge each carry shared-use paths, neither crosses the upper bay at the same latitude as the Howard Frankland. At seven miles, the HFB Trail is also longer than either of those paths as a standalone bay crossing. The $865 million project scope has included not only the new lanes but a reconstruction of the bridge's load-bearing infrastructure, making the trail a byproduct of a rebuilding program rather than a standalone investment.
No formal ribbon-cutting or dedication ceremony details accompanied the announcement. The trail and lanes appear to have opened without significant advance notice — consistent with how prior milestones on the Howard Frankland have rolled out, as incremental deliverables rather than coordinated public events.
The southbound express lanes are the project's next major deliverable. Their toll-free testing window — and how long agencies extend it — will signal something about how pricing will be introduced once full operations begin. For trail users, the more consequential near-term question is endpoint connectivity: how well 4th Street North and Reo Street tie into the existing cycling infrastructure on each end will determine whether the HFB Trail functions as a practical cross-bay commuter route or primarily a recreational amenity.
