Lee Roy Selmon Expressway — Tampa, Florida

The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway is the east-west toll road that crosses Tampa from the Gandy Boulevard area of South Tampa through downtown to Brandon and Interstate 75. It is owned, maintained and operated by the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority, known as THEA, which describes itself as an independent agency of the state. THEA operates four facilities in Hillsborough County: the Selmon Expressway, the Brandon Parkway, Meridian Avenue and the Selmon Greenway.

THEA's Selmon Expressway page describes a 17-mile, all-electronic toll road linking Pinellas County, West Hillsborough County, Downtown Tampa, Brandon and Southern Hillsborough County. It feeds directly into downtown Tampa and is, in the authority's description, the most direct route for commuters into and out of MacDill Air Force Base. Hillsborough County's 2024 history page, using an earlier measure, gives the length as 15 miles from Gandy to I-75 in Brandon and estimates about 100,000 motorists a day.

The road did not start with Selmon's name. Hillsborough County records that it was originally called the Crosstown Expressway and that its first segment opened in 1976, running from Gandy Boulevard to downtown Tampa. Early critics called the elevated road a white elephant, arguing that too few motorists were paying to drive on it.

The expressway was renamed in 1999 for Lee Roy Selmon. THEA explains on its statue page that the authority initiated the renaming and that, as with all state road designations, it required approval from the Florida Legislature: a local recommendation, a bill, passage by both chambers and the governor's signature.

Selmon was the first player chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the team's first NFL draft in 1976, the overall first pick, and in 1995 he became Tampa Bay's first inductee into the NFL Hall of Fame, according to Hillsborough County. After his playing career he stayed in Hillsborough County as a bank executive and later at the University of South Florida, where he became athletic director in 2001. He died on September 4, 2011, at age 56. THEA's tribute on the Selmon Greenway is an 8-foot bronze statue at Florida Avenue and Brorein Street in downtown Tampa, by Oklahoma sculptor Joel Randell, showing Selmon in his Buccaneers #63 jersey.

The best-known feature of the Selmon Expressway is the upper deck east of downtown Tampa. THEA's REL page describes the Reversible Express Lanes as a direct, uninterrupted connection between Southern Hillsborough County and downtown Tampa. The express lanes reverse direction with peak travel, carrying traffic into Tampa each morning and back toward Brandon each evening, while the local lanes below serve drivers making stops before downtown. The authority describes the REL as the first all-electronic reversible express lanes in the United States.

On weekdays, THEA lists the REL as westbound toward downtown Tampa from 5:00 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. and eastbound toward Brandon from 12:00 p.m. to 4:15 a.m., with approximate times. The westbound opening was moved to 5 a.m. because, according to THEA, westbound traffic from the Brandon suburbs begins building as early as 3 a.m. Before each change of direction the lanes go through a brief transition to clear all vehicles, and the Brandon entrance closes shortly before the westbound to eastbound switch. On weekends, and on holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day, the REL runs eastbound all day.

Drivers do not pay extra for the upper deck. THEA states that the REL costs the same toll as the local lanes below, and credits the system with easing traffic at US 301, 78th Street and the I-4 Connector by spreading drivers across both decks.

The Selmon Expressway has no cash toll booths. THEA's toll calculator lists rates for two-axle vehicles effective July 1, 2026. A REL trip costs $2.18 with SunPass and $2.54 by toll-by-plate, the same as the East Main Plaza at 78th Street. The West Main Plaza in Hyde Park is $1.44 with SunPass and $1.80 by plate. Shorter trips through plazas at 22nd Street and Plant Avenue are $0.75 with SunPass, while the 50th Street and Willow Avenue plazas and the Selmon West Extension are $1.07. Toll-by-plate charges are subject to an administration fee.

THEA states that all revenues collected on the Selmon Expressway stay in Tampa and Hillsborough County, where they are reinvested. The authority's map page notes that, through the Selmon West Extension, drivers can join the expressway at the south end of the Gandy Bridge and travel to I-75 in Brandon without a stoplight.

THEA has adjusted the REL's access points. Its slip ramp project, identified during the East Selmon Project Development and Environment study, added a westbound entry ramp to the REL from northbound I-75 and a westbound exit ramp near the I-4 connector, close to IKEA. Construction began in January 2022 and finished in the fall of 2023. THEA reports that, based on its traffic data from June 1, 2024, more than 300 fewer vehicles exit at the REL terminus at Twiggs Street and Meridian during the peak morning rush, easing downtown streets and cut-through traffic toward Bayshore Boulevard.

The next major project is on the older western section. THEA's South Selmon Capacity Project will add one lane in each direction over about 4.5 miles, from the eastern end of the Selmon Extension to the six-lane section near the Whiting Street overpass in downtown Tampa. The project also includes new lighting, landscaping, sidewalks and paint at every underpass on the route, plus sound walls, and is intended in part to keep cut-through traffic off Bayshore and other neighborhood roads.

Researchers have also measured the road's value to commuters. Business Observer reported on August 25, 2026 that a new economic impact study by the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research found drivers who use the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway save an estimated 29 hours each year.

Part of the expressway's footprint in downtown Tampa is a trail. THEA built the Selmon Greenway, a 1.7-mile multi-use trail running east to west under the Selmon Expressway through downtown Tampa, connecting with the City of Tampa's Riverwalk and the Meridian Trail. The authority has added pocket parks with landscaping, benches and artwork along the route, and its Greenway page notes that the trail was created in partnership with the City of Tampa and the Tampa Riverwalk.