Downtown Tampa Interchange

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Downtown Tampa Interchange

Tampa’s downtown and surrounding urban core is rich with cultural and historical resources. The Downtown Interchange and corridors of I-275, I-4 and the Selmon Expressway are key links in Florida’s interstate freeway system providing freight and passenger mobility. While they serve as important commuter routes to suburban and urban communities in the Tampa Bay region providing access to jobs, medical facilities, universities and cultural resources, the Downtown Interchange is a known chokepoint.

Tampa Bay Next will provide multimodal transportation choices to:

Distribute traffic more evenly for a growing and changing downtown and urban core
Efficiently move people and goods with connectivity throughout the region
Enhance travel speeds to key destinations and reduce backups
Integrate transit choices for commuters, visitors and residents
Connect neighborhoods with public spaces such as parks, greenway and a trail

Wait, didn’t you fix that already?

FDOT completed operational improvements to the Downtown interchange in 2006. These improvements were meant to be interim and FDOT has had a long-standing plan to redesign and reconstruct the Downtown Tampa Interchange since the late 1980s. The interchange is part of the original Tampa Interstate Study.

Downtown Quick Facts

Employed

Living Within 3 Miles of Downtown

Living in Downtown Core

Residential Units Under Construction

Restaurants

Hotels

Project Status

Safety and Operational Improvements

Construction Estimate:	$137 million*
(as of June 2021)	Not funded for construction
* Present Day Cost

The Downtown Tampa Interchange, Tampa’s Westshore Interchange, and the Westshore to Downtown Tampa Corridor projects are all part of a long-standing plan to improve and modernize Tampa’s interstate system, originally called the Tampa Interstate Study (TIS). The TIS required the most rigorous evaluation process in transportation planning – an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). FDOT began theTampa Interstate Study (TIS) Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) in 2017, working with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).

FDOT has been engaging with the community to receive input on alternative design concepts for the SEIS and held a public meeting in October 2017 to review the concepts and get community input. FDOT also held a second public workshop in May 2019 to further review proposed alternative options. A public hearing was held in February 2020, and FHWA approved the SEIS in September 2020.

On October 1, 2019, FDOT presented information on the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for the Tampa Interstate Study (TIS) Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to the Hillsborough MPO Board. The LPA included operational improvements to the Downtown Tampa Interchange.

Operational Improvements

To view the latest safety and operational improvements for the Downtown Tampa Interchange, click here.

To view fly through videos on the proposed improvements, click here for the I-275/I-4 Interchange – Locally Preferred Alternative video and the I-275/I-4 Interchange – Locally Preferred Alternative (Technical Flyover Animation) video.