The plan to connect the Gandy Bridge with the Selmon Crosstown Expressway is on hold.

That may be bad news for drivers, but it’s great news for many businesses in South Tampa.

Traffic along Gandy Boulevard in South Tampa flows smoothly and rapidly on a regular Saturday morning, but if plans to connect the Gandy Bridge with the Selmon Expressway directly were approved, it would probably be a lot quieter.

The project has been talked about for years, but just recently the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority put it on the shelf with no plans to bring it back.

“We came up with a recommended solution, which is a two-lane elevated construction, which is in the median of Gandy Boulevard,” said Joe Waggoner of the Tampa Hillsborough County Expressway Authority.

That may be bad news for drivers wanting to get from A to B a little quicker, but for businesses in the South Tampa area such as Rainbow Play Systems, it’s exactly what they have been hoping for.

“I get people stopping in here just simply because of the traffic," Phil Riley of the playground store said. " They’ll pull in because they’ve got grandkids or kids and they want to know about the play systems, said Phil Riley, Rainbow Play Systems.

The people at Rainbow Play Systems said their business is sustainable because it’s in a high-traffic area in which the cars that drive by can see what they have to offer.

“We would definitely have to find another high traffic area," Riley said. "All of our stores are in high traffic areas for a reason.”

Authority board members are not planning to revive the plan on their own.

It would take a local jurisdiction or the Florida Department of Transportation to bring it back.