Florida

[D-Dey65]

20 mile project to widen I-4 to six lanes:

$85 million for Florida DOT to construct a general use lane in each direction along approximately 20 miles of I-4 between State Road 434 and State Road 472 in Seminole and Volusia Counties. The project will expand freight capacity and relieve bottleneck congestion, saving time and money for American families and freight carriers.

- https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-invests-426-million-eliminate

I'm assuming this does not include the Express Lane project?

If any segment needs a local/express lane project, it's northeastern Polk County. FDOT really goofed with the reconstruction at Exit 48.

And if they're going to build that truck parking area over at the I-4/US 92 connector, they should reopen the Lake Mary Rest Area for the general public.

[D-Dey65]

I almost considered starting a whole new thread on the Bridges board, but I changed my mind.

If the MV Summit Venture had never hit the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge back in 1980, I suspect that the FDOT would decide that the bridge wouldn't be stable enough for existing traffic conditions in the early-21st Century. As a result, they'd probably have to replace it with another cable-stayed bridge like they have today, but tall enough to handle larger passenger ships.

[Beltway]

I almost considered starting a whole new thread on the Bridges board, but I changed my mind.
If the MV Summit Venture had never hit the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge back in 1980, I suspect that the FDOT would decide that the bridge wouldn't be stable enough for existing traffic conditions in the early-21st Century. As a result, they'd probably have to replace it with another cable-stayed bridge like they have today, but tall enough to handle larger passenger ships.

Possibly. Traffic growth alone does not necessarily mean the original Skyway would have been replaced, since many major truss bridges have been rehabilitated repeatedly.  Many large steel truss bridges have remained in service for decades beyond their original design life through extensive rehabilitation.

However, increasing navigation demands, evolving design standards, and concerns about ship-collision risk could have eventually driven FDOT toward a replacement project even absent the Summit Venture accident.

The original bridges had 4 lanes just like the current bridge.

If they wanted 4,000+ feet of horizontal clearance and unlimited vertical clearance, the could have built a bridge-tunnel like on I-664 in VA.