I-275

About I-275

Also known as Sunshine Skyway Bridge.

Interstate 275 is a three-digit auxiliary route of Interstate 75, with an even prefix digit marking it as a loop or bypass. The number is reused in three regions. In Florida, Interstate 275 is a route of about sixty miles serving the Tampa Bay area, branching from Interstate 75 near Palmetto, crossing Tampa Bay on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, passing through St. Petersburg, crossing the bay again on the Howard Frankland Bridge, and continuing through Tampa to an interchange with Interstate 4.

In Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, Interstate 275 is a complete beltway of about eighty-four miles around Cincinnati, the longest beltway carrying an Interstate designation in the country and the only auxiliary Interstate to enter three states. In Michigan, Interstate 275 is a western bypass of the Detroit metropolitan area running roughly thirty-five miles between Interstate 75 in the south and the Interstate 96 corridor in the north.

Each instance functions as a major loop, bypass, or bay crossing serving its metropolitan region, consistent with the even prefix digit.

History

The Cincinnati beltway was planned in the late 1950s and built to encircle the metro area, later named the Donald H. Rolfe Circle Freeway. The Florida route includes the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a cable-stayed span across Tampa Bay that opened in 1987 with a high clearance over the shipping channel. The Detroit route was built as a western bypass of that metropolitan area.

Major cities and places

Notable features

• Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay
• Howard Frankland Bridge over Tampa Bay

Did you know

• The Cincinnati route is the only auxiliary Interstate to enter three states.
• The Cincinnati beltway is the longest Interstate-designated beltway in the country.
• The Florida route crosses Tampa Bay on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
• The Michigan route is a western bypass of Detroit.