Insider's look at where $3B in state transportation projects is going

The Florida Department of Transportation is driving more than $3 billion in spending across 28 major projects along Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Nearly half of that is being spent in the Tampa Bay area on a new bridge and a new tollway. The 5.8-mile Howard Frankland Bridge connecting Tampa and St. Petersburg will cost $865 million to build, according to the FDOT’s website, and the Gateway Expressway system in Pinellas will cost $594.7 million. The tollway should be done next year, while the bridge is currently estimated to be completed in 2025.

In Manatee, $145 million is being spent to build a new interchange between Interstate 75 and US 301. And in Sarasota, a road-widening project affecting I-75 and State Road 758 is in the design phase, with estimated costs of $115 million.

The quirkiest project on the list: Project Number 424213-3-52-01, which involves spending an estimated $38.3 million to upgrade Tampa’s traffic lights.