The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority is set to kick off work this spring on a $362 million expansion of the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway’s southern stretch, a busy 4.5-mile corridor between the Selmon Extension and downtown. The plan calls for more lanes and rebuilt bridges along the route, which officials say is meant to dial back the daily traffic jams that now spill into nearby neighborhood streets during rush hour and big downtown events.
What the project will build
The South Selmon Capacity Project will add one lane in each direction and modernize 26 bridges, including a redesigned span over the Hillsborough River, according to the South Selmon Capacity Project. Neighborhood-facing features are baked into the design, with planned noise walls in residential areas, revamped underpasses with upgraded lighting and landscaping, and a dog park and gathering space at the Bay-to-Bay/MacDill underpass that grew out of community input.
Contractor and timeline
The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority has tapped Archer Western Construction as the design-builder and signed off on the $362 million contract to deliver the job. Construction was scheduled to begin in March 2026 and is expected to run through 2030, with work staged to keep most heavy activity inside the existing right-of-way. Industry coverage of the award notes the procurement included add-alternate packages so the agency could stretch the scope as far as the budget would allow.
What drivers will see
Officials say crews will try to keep the pain manageable for drivers, concentrating the most disruptive work during off-peak hours and avoiding full daytime closures where they can. Lane closures and heavier operations will generally run between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. The project will also add Intelligent Transportation Systems for real-time traffic monitoring and extend merge areas, changes that are intended to ease bottlenecks and cut down on the cut-through traffic that has become a sore spot for nearby neighborhoods.
Funding and neighborhood trade-offs
The authority says the expansion will be funded with toll revenue as part of its broader multi-year reinvestment strategy, not through new local taxes. Officials point to roughly 78 million annual toll transactions and other system receipts as the financial backbone for the program, and they describe the neighborhood upgrades as part of the overall trade-off that comes with widening a major urban expressway.
What’s next
Crews are now mobilizing, and the agency says it will post lane-closure schedules and traffic updates on the project page and its social media channels so commuters can plan around the work. The construction timing and local details were reported today by the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
