TAMPA BAY — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced the start of demolition work on the original Howard Franklin Bridge and highlighted a planned I‑275 widening and new express lanes in Pinellas County that officials said will connect directly to the new bridge.

DeSantis said the work is part of a larger, state-led infrastructure push he described as “Moving Florida Forward,” which he said injected about $7,000,000,000 into the state work program to accelerate projects across Florida.

The move to replace and modernize the Howard Franklin Bridge is intended to increase capacity, improve hurricane evacuation routes and ease freight movement across Tampa Bay. “We will end up delivering a modern bridge that will increase capacity by 50%,” DeSantis said. Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Jared Perdue said demolition of the original structure — built around 1960 — is underway and the overall project remains on its original schedule.

Perdue said the Howard Franklin Bridge project is the largest the agency has delivered in the region and described it as a complicated, long-running undertaking. “I can truly say because of your focus on transportation infrastructure and your leadership in transportation, we truly have become the envy of a lot of other states and other countries,” Perdue said. He added that crews have removed roughly 36 spans of the old bridge so far, of about 322 total spans, and that the removed concrete will be crushed and recycled for other transportation work.

Officials tied the bridge project to other nearby investments accelerated by the Moving Florida Forward initiative, including I‑275 express lanes and widening work in Pinellas County and auxiliary lanes on I‑75 near Ocala that were advanced years ahead of schedule. DeSantis said the state’s five‑year capital plan now approaches $70,000,000,000 in infrastructure projects to address congestion and safety.

Perdue highlighted early results from other projects funded or expedited under the initiative: congestion relief lanes on a busy stretch of I‑4 opened eight months ahead of schedule and, he said, have cut travel times dramatically for commuters. He described the I‑4 central Florida project as a roughly $3,400,000,000 investment that likely would not have been funded as soon without the Moving Florida Forward funds.

DeSantis and Perdue emphasized the projects’ emergency‑response and evacuation benefits. Perdue noted the new Howard Franklin spans sit higher than the old bridge and, he said, “that water didn’t touch the new bridge” during recent hurricane events when the old structure was overtopped. DeSantis said the work also supports freight movement between Tampa and Orlando and other economic activity.

FDOT officials said express lanes that will tie into the Howard Franklin project are under contract and procurement completed, with construction and additional milestones to follow. Perdue said he was confident district teams “are gonna finish, early and under budget.”

Remaining steps include continued demolition of the old bridge, opening of new lanes and phased delivery of express lanes and a multiuse pedestrian path that will connect the two communities across the bay. Officials gave no new firm completion date beyond saying the project is “tracking to finish when we originally anticipated.”

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Provenance: topicintro — excerpt from transcript where the governor introduced "Moving Florida Forward" and the bridge projects (speaker: Governor; transcript time ~389.775–435.300). topicfinish — excerpt from FDOT remarks about demolition progress and project schedule (speaker: Jared Perdue; transcript time ~1065.935–1374.420).