the series of $2.5 billion construction projects that began in January<\/a> in the interstate\u2019s busiest corridor in Osceola and Polk counties.<\/p>\nThe projects will be complete in the summer of 2031, hopefully bringing the area long-awaited relief from traffic backups, said Will Watts, FDOT chief operating officer and assistant secretary, during a presentation to the Central Florida Expressway Authority board.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s fast in the world of transportation,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n
The five projects are part of the larger $4 billion Moving Florida Forward Infrastructure Initiative to advance 20 priority transportation projects across the state.<\/p>\n
In Central Florida, FDOT aims to improve 14 miles of the highway and add two new express lanes in each direction. The department had promised to deliver the project within the next decade, but until now an exact date was unclear.<\/p>\n
The Osceola segment of I-4 under construction saw an average of more than 120,000 vehicles every day in 2025, according to FDOT data. The section that borders the Osceola-Polk line got even more traffic,\u00a0 with an average of over 160,000 vehicles daily in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priorities for this program definitely were tailored around congestion relief,\u201d Watts said. \u201cAs you all know, a lot of folks are trying to get north into the Disney area from Osceola and Polk County and it is unbelievable the amount of delays that were happening because of the growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
These projects will add two new express lanes in each direction along I-4, from west of U.S. 27 in Polk County to east of World Center Drive and State Road 536 in Orange County. All together, the construction will also add ramps, add connections to new highways, widen some local roads and construct new road segments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is helping our region catch up and keep up with the growth across the state, while improving reliability for our commuters and freight along the I-4 corridor,\u201d said Michelle\u00a0Maikisch, CEO of CFX.<\/p>\n
The timeline is significantly faster than FDOT\u2019s previous I-4 Ultimate plan, which extended through seven years. That $2.3 billion project spanned 21 miles between Kirkman Road in Orange County to State Road 434, upgrading infrastructure and adding the its cornerstone express lanes. It began in 2015 and extended, through many delays, until 2022 when the express lanes opened.<\/p>\n
Moving I-4 Forward is using a new model of design to deliver them faster and cheaper by contracting with three teams instead of just one.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the big lessons learned from I-4 Ultimate is running a collection of projects as a program has a lot of benefit,\u201d Watts said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An end date is in sight for the ongoing construction on a section of Interstate 4 that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[101829,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-225684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-for-the-first-time-on-thursday-the-florida-department-of-transportation-revealed-a-timeline-for-the-series-of-2-5-billion-construction-projects-currently-underway-in-osceola-and-polk-counties","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}