The Airport Exit Off the Howard Frankland Moved a Half Mile North. It Stays There Until Fall 2028.

The exit you use to reach Tampa International Airport from the Howard Frankland Bridge moved at 10 p.m. Monday, and it is not moving back for more than two years. FDOT relocated the northbound I-275 Exit 39 movement to State Road 60 West, S.R. 589 North (Veterans Expressway) and TPA about a half mile north of the old ramp. The agency expects that temporary setup to stay in place through fall 2028.

The new instruction is simple. If you are headed to the airport, the Veterans, or westbound S.R. 60, stay on northbound I-275 past the point where you used to peel off. A temporary exit a half mile up the road feeds you back onto the same ramp you have always used.

Everything else about Exit 39 is where you left it. The ramp to Kennedy Boulevard/S.R. 60 East is open during the day. It closes only overnight, and only on a handful of nights.

The overnight Kennedy closures

To build the switch, crews are closing the northbound Exit 39 ramp to Kennedy Boulevard from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 10 through Wednesday, Aug. 12, and again on Sunday, Aug. 16 and Monday, Aug. 17. During those hours, the detour runs north on I-275 to the Lois Avenue exit, south on Lois, then west onto Kennedy.

If you have a red-eye departure or a late arrival to pick up this week, that is the wrinkle to plan around. Add time.

Why northbound crawled this week

Traffic coming off the bridge slowed to a crawl near the West Shore interchange as the lane changes went in, according to local news reports. Crews have been widening lanes, extending the northbound express lanes and building longer merge areas so drivers are not fighting each other for the same few hundred feet of asphalt. Work zone speed limits on I-275 and across the Howard Frankland are now posted at 55 mph.

The half-mile shift is not an inconvenience for its own sake. It clears the ground where FDOT is building a new flyover ramp that will carry traffic straight from the Howard Frankland Bridge to S.R. 60 and the airport, without the weaving that has defined that interchange for decades.

What the $653.3 million buys

This is Priority 1A, the first construction phase of the Westshore Interchange rebuild, and it covers I-275 from the Howard Frankland Bridge to east of Lois Avenue plus S.R. 60 from I-275 to north of Spruce Street. Work started in January 2026. Superior-Lane Joint Venture holds the contract.

Beyond the airport flyover, the phase includes northbound I-275 express lanes running from the bridge to a future Reo Street bridge, a new flyover replacing the old loop ramp from eastbound S.R. 60 to northbound I-275, a new southbound I-275 entrance from Reo Street, and reconnected local streets at Reo, Occident and Trask. Shared-use paths and sidewalk connections are part of it too.

That last piece matters to anyone who lives or works in Westshore rather than just driving through it. Those streets were severed when the interstate went in.

Two nights of the Kennedy ramp closure remain on the current schedule, Sunday and Monday. After that, the temporary airport exit becomes the normal one. FDOT has funding for the interchange's later phases penciled in for 2030 and 2032, so the version of this junction on the drawings is still years from finished.

For more traffic and construction updates across the city, keep an eye on Tampa Community Website and follow us on Facebook. Found a detour that works better than the posted one? Join the conversation in our Community Forum. You can also read more alerts and local news stories any time.

Header photo: Ward Beckett & Co. / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)