After the widening project in 1992, Interstate 275 was increased to eight lanes on the bridge itself. However, this did not increase capacity on either end of the bridge. Backups were still seen on the Howard Frankland heading into Tampa, primarily due to a bottleneck at the SR 60/Veterans Expressway exit. On the St. Petersburg side, after a comprehensive reconstruction project that took over ten years, lane counts were increased from four lanes prior to the bridge to six lanes through downtown St. Petersburg, and eight lanes from Gandy Boulevard to the bridge.

A reconstruction project was planned to begin in 2017 for the new Gateway Expressway project, a plan to build a new toll road to connect different parts in Pinellas County. However, FDOT planned to reconstruct the interstate in smaller phases rather than the original larger two-phase project and the start of construction was delayed to 2020.

Once the reconstruction project is finished in 2025, major traffic congestion on the Howard Frankland bridge is expected to be significantly reduced by the addition of new lanes. On January 7, 2021, FDOT postponed by a week to January 16, 2021 the start date for removing an overpass and the corresponding exit ramp over I-275. It had been scheduled to shut down by 8 p.m., EST, January 9, through January 10. This work was part of the U.S. $600 million toll road project. On January 16 to 17, 2021, workers removed the 4th street north interchange bridge (overpass) from 8 p.m. on January 16, to 12 p.m. on January 17. Exit 32 was closed until late 2021 while the new overpass is constructed.

Overall construction on this large project began in fall 2020 and completion is expected in late 2025. A completely new bridge will carry southbound traffic. Once that bridge is completed, the existing southbound bridge will be converted to carry northbound traffic. When all traffic is moved to the final alignment, the existing northbound bridge will be removed. The newly built bridge for southbound traffic will include a separate pathway for pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and additional vehicle traffic lanes.[
Based on the reference text, what was the start date and the expected completion date of the reconstruction project on the Howard Frankland bridge.
The reconstruction project of the Howard Frankland bridge started in fall of 2020 and is expected to be completed in 2025.