In November, David Gwynn, the Florida Department of Transportation secretary for the Tampa Bay area, came to the Pinellas County Commission with what he said was good news: The Gateway Expressway project would finally open to drivers in February.

It’s now the end of February, construction isn’t done and the Department of Transportation says the opening of the repeatedly delayed project has once again been pushed back. It will now open to traffic sometime this spring, said agency spokesperson Kris Carson, with finishing touches on the project extending through the summer.

The $600 million project will add elevated toll roads connecting I-275 in Pinellas County to U.S. 19 and the Bayside Bridge. Transportation officials initially said it would be open by late 2021, but the finish line was later pushed back to 2023, then to this January and then to this February.

The latest delay has to do with the project’s contractor, a joint venture between Archer Western and the DeMoya Group, running into an “unforeseen delay” in acquiring overhead sign panels, Carson said.

The contractor also recently removed and replaced a finished overpass segment near 118th Avenue N after inspections led to concerns about its durability, though Carson said that process did not affect the project’s timeline.

“These concerns didn’t affect safety but would affect the long-term service life and maintenance requirements of the bridge,” Carson said in an email, adding that the contractor paid to remove and replace the segment.