TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Construction is underway on the South Selmon Capacity Project in an effort to reduce congestion on the Selmon Expressway as traffic continues to increase through Tampa.<\/p>\n
The Selmon Expressway, which runs from south Tampa to Brandon, now sees 80% more traffic than it did 10 years ago. The project includes adding another lane in each direction through downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat project is really going to add a lot of value to the community,\u201d said Gregory Slater, Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority’s chief executive officer. \u201cIt will add another lane in each direction. We\u2019re improving 26 different bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The work also includes safety improvements, such as extended entrance ramps in south Tampa. The project is expected to be completed in 2029.<\/p>\n
Tampa realtor Meghan Iacofano said the expressway is a major part of her daily routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s integral in what I do for work, and in my family life, my free time,\u201d Iacofano said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big part of commuting everywhere I need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to a recent USF study, the Selmon Expressway saves drivers an average of 29 hours a year<\/a>. The study also noted there are more than 16,000 businesses within a mile of the expressway<\/a>, which helps with job access in the area.<\/p>\n Leaders are also exploring a future expansion down U.S. 301, which Slater said could improve access to jobs in the southern Hillsborough County region.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll not only extend the Selmon down 301 and save people time, we\u2019ll also give them accessibility to a ton more jobs in the area,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n Iacofano said the added capacity would help drivers who have seen traffic increase over time.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years it\u2019s gotten a bit more congested, and so to know there are efforts to expand those roadways to move people quicker is definitely very helpful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Construction is underway on the South Selmon Capacity Project in an effort to reduce congestion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2173,7444,115,135,137,136,7227,729,2177,835],"class_list":["post-426099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-traffic-transit","tag-getting-there","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tim-wronka","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-and-transit","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}