Cross San Martin Boulevard at rush hour this summer and you will sit in a single-file line of cars and bicycles, waiting for a temporary signal to wave you through one lane of a bridge that used to carry two. Most residents assume this ends when the orange barrels come down in October and that will be that. It won't. What's happening on the bridge right now is not the San Martin Bridge replacement. It's the setup for it.
Riviera Bay has exactly one bridge connecting the neighborhood's core streets, and this year that bridge is hosting two different construction projects with two different contractors, two different budgets, and two different finish lines. Confusing them means planning around the wrong calendar.
The Project You're Driving Through Right Now
Since April 20, 2026, the City of St. Petersburg has kept San Martin Boulevard down to one lane between Weedon Drive NE and Tallahassee Drive NE, with delays expected to run through October 2026. Phase 1 closed the southbound lane. Phase 2 will close the northbound lane. Either way, cars and bikes share a single lane while a temporary signal alternates traffic in both directions.
The reason has nothing to do with the bridge deck itself. The city is relocating a 24-inch sanitary force main and a 12-inch water main that currently run attached to the bridge, replacing them with a new 30-inch force main and 16-inch water main drilled beneath Riviera Bay using horizontal directional drilling, a tunneling method chosen specifically to avoid disturbing the water above it. Once those utilities are off the bridge, the structure is finally clear to be torn down and rebuilt.
That's the piece easy to miss. This spring and summer's traffic pattern isn't a preview of the real bridge project. It's the precondition for it.
The Project That Hasn't Started Yet
The actual bridge replacement is a separate contract, approved by City Council on December 4, 2025, when members unanimously signed off on $7.14 million in combined work: up to $6.71 million to PCL Construction, Inc. for the bridge replacement itself, and up to $427,046 to HDR Construction, Inc. for the water and sewer piping work now underway. The bridge itself has served Riviera Bay since 1962, and Pinellas County, which is managing the replacement in partnership with the Florida Department of Transportation, is still wrapping up the design phase.
Councilmember Brandi Gabbard, who represents Riviera Bay, put the timeline in blunt terms after the council vote:
"This has been an ongoing issue for, oh my goodness, it certainly predates me, and I've been here for almost nine years. So that tells you how long the San Martin Bridge has been a conversation in District 2."
Gabbard expects construction on the replacement itself to start in early 2027, not this year. Congresswoman Kathy Castor separately secured $850,000 in federal funding to help cover the cost, on top of the local Penny for Pinellas dollars already committed.
Here's the two-project picture side by side:
| Utility Relocation (current) | Bridge Replacement (future) | |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor | HDR Construction, Inc. | PCL Construction, Inc. |
| Scope | Relocate force main and water main beneath the bay | Replace the 1962 bridge structure |
| Timeline | April 20, 2026 through October 2026 | Expected to start early 2027 |
| Approved cost | Up to $427,046 | Up to $6.71 million, plus $850,000 in federal funds |
When the current lane closure lifts this fall, that's the utility work finishing on schedule, not the neighborhood being done with construction. The bigger disruption, the one that actually rebuilds the span, is still ahead.
Living Around It Until October
The city has been direct about who this affects most: drivers who treat San Martin Boulevard as a cut-through between Gandy Boulevard and 4th Street North. Those trips are the ones absorbing the worst of the alternating single-lane signal, especially during peak commute hours. The city has posted message boards at the 83rd Avenue intersections with both 4th Street North and Gandy Boulevard specifically to steer that cut-through traffic elsewhere before it reaches the bridge.
If your daily route through Riviera Bay doesn't require crossing between Weedon Drive NE and Tallahassee Drive NE, this summer's construction barely touches you. If it does, this is the season to build in extra minutes rather than assume the bridge will clear on your schedule.
The Neighborhood's Calendar Doesn't Wait for the Barrels
None of this has slowed down what actually defines a year in Riviera Bay, which runs less on the bridge and more on the water and the streets around it. The Riviera Bay Civic Association keeps its own calendar going regardless of what's happening on San Martin:
- The Independence Day Golf Cart Parade lines up behind Liberty Baptist Church at the Riviera Bay Community Playground, carts decorated and ready to roll through the neighborhood.
- The Halloween Golf Cart Parade folds in a Trunk-or-Treat at the playground before carts, bikes, and wagons make their way through the streets.
- The Annual Canal Cleanup gathers volunteers at the Sunlit Cove Boat Ramp to work the shoreline and mangrove edges by hand.
- The Christmas Eve Boat Parade meets at the docks at Sunlit Cove, with updates broadcast on Channel 69 and the fleet led out onto the water.
Sunlit Cove Boat Ramp does double duty as the neighborhood's actual water access point and its informal town square for these events, the place where the canal cleanup checks in volunteers and where the holiday boat parade both starts and, in its final stretch, circles back through. None of that calendar runs through the bridge.
What to Actually Watch For
The distinction matters if you're trying to plan around either project. The lane closure ending this October means the utilities are clear. It does not mean San Martin Boulevard goes back to being untouched. Somewhere in early 2027, based on Gabbard's timeline, the real construction begins: tearing out and rebuilding a bridge that has carried this neighborhood's traffic since 1962. That project, run by PCL Construction under a $6.71 million contract, is likely to be a longer and more visible disruption than the utility work residents are driving through right now, simply because it involves the bridge structure itself rather than what's attached beneath it.
Knowing that now, while the current lane closure is still the only thing on the calendar, means you won't be caught off guard when a second, larger round of construction signage goes up on the same stretch of road a year from now.
If you're weighing what any of this means for a home near San Martin Boulevard, whether you're comparing waterfront lots close to Sunlit Cove or trying to understand how the neighborhood's canals and streets fit together, Marsh Bilby has spent nearly three decades pricing and appraising property across Tampa Bay, including the canal-front streets of Riviera Bay. Take a look at the Riviera Bay neighborhood page for more on the area, or reach out directly if you'd like a straight answer about what a specific property here is actually worth.
