Let’s enjoy the last day of daylight saving time and take advantage of the 6:48 sunset. On the agenda, the elevated Express lanes of the Tampa Crosstown Expressway (Florida Toll 618), Brandon, and whatever else catches our desire.

The drive begins with a pass through the Florida 60 (Memorial Highway) and Florida 616 (Spruce Street) construction project.

Underway is the upgrading of the current substandard interchange serving Tampa International Airport from the Florida 60 freeway. http://www.mytbi.com/content/users/projectinfo.asp?projectID=72&RoadID=11 The present interchange involves substandard ramps, weaving traffic concerns, and close proximity to the busy exits with the Courtney Campbell Causeway (Florida 60), Memorial Highway (Hillsborough County 576), and Interstate 275. The freeway curvature coupled with the numerous on and off-ramps placed in a two-mile stretch creates havoc on morning and evening peak travel hours. The result is virtual gridlock and overall sluggishness for hours at a time. Crews are building new flyovers and collector/distributor roadways to alleviate the problem. During the last two months, the towering pier supports at the interchange have gained steel bridge beams for the eventual flyover to Florida 616 west. The beams now join the earthened ramp approach to the west. The middle pier support however is not complete, so it will be awhile longer before the steel continues east toward the airport.

Tampa Crosstown Expressway serves downtown Tampa between the skyscrapers and the St. Pete Times Forum. The road joins the central business district with MacDill AFB to the south and the eastern suburbs of Brandon to the east.

Opened at the end of August, the new elevated express lanes provide additional capacity between downtown and Brandon. Like those on Interstate 64 in Virginia, Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia, and Interstate 5 in Seattle, the lanes are reversible. Large guide signs include variable message boards to indicate whether or not the lanes are open for outbound traffic. This particular assembly exists along Florida 60 near its departure from downtown.

The express lanes soar above the Florida 618 Toll travel mainline. The sleek design mimmicks those of the elevated lanes of Interstate 10 in San Antonio and Interstate 110 in Los Angeles. The white paint adds to the brightness of the central Florida sunshine.

Unlike some of the other express lane configurations in the country, the Crosstown Expressway lanes include multiple opportunities to access them from the freeway mainline. Pictured here is the eastbound entrance from midway between downtown Tampa and Interstate 75. The elevated lanes act the same as the Orange County, California tollway system and the HOT lanes of Interstate 15 in San Diego County in that they are only available to those with toll transponders, in this case SunPass.

After reaching Interstate 75, we opted to head south toward Gibsonton and Palmetto. Rather then take Interstate 75 the whole way, we also chose to take U.S. 41, a road that I’ve not seen in southeastern Hillsborough County.

When we reached Interstate 275 on U.S. 41, we were surprised to see that an Interstate 75 Florida shield exists in both directions! The shield appeared to be fairly new.

Here’s the northbound assembly for the I-275 southbound ramp. Interstate 275 ends nearby at Interstate 75.

Continuing south, we ended up in Palmetto and low and behold an orange/white U.S. 41 overhead assembly on 7th Street West was still in place! The shields direct traffic to U.S. 41 & 301 via local streets.

After that we stopped by a local salsa store and picked up some hot sauce. The lady their asked if we were Geocaching? Um no, but thanks for enlightening us…

The hot sauce store was located just south of the U.S. 19 terminus at U.S. 41. The lady at the store seemed to know that U.S. 19 ends in Erie, Pennsylvania!

Here’s the view looking north at the wye interchange split between the northbound beginning of U.S. 19 and U.S. 41 north.

Heading north along the famous Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Waters were quite choppy and whitecapped due to a strong cold front blowing in this day.

The bridge itself is similar in design to the James River Bridge of Interstate 295 in Virginia and the SR 1 Turnpike crossing of the C & D Canal in Delaware.

After a brief pass through South Saint Petersburg and downtown St. Petersburg, it’s the eastbound beginning of U.S. 92. Florida 687 co-signs with the US highway northward to Gandy Boulevard. The state road ends at the merge with Interstate 275 southwest of the Howard Frankland Bridge.

Here’s the first shield along 4th Street North.