Florida Department of Transportation project<\/a> would widen State Road 50 between Avalon Park Boulevard and Chuluota Road, also known as County Road 419. The plan is aimed at reducing backups along a stretch of roadway where about 46,000 vehicles travel each day.<\/p>\nFDOT had planned to split the project into two segments, with one funded for 2027 and the other for 2029. Last month, Orange County commissioners agreed to contribute $20 million to combine the two segments and accelerate the work, allowing construction on the full project to begin next year. FDOT will fully reimburse the county.<\/p>\n
The widening comes as development continues in east Orange County, including The Grow, a 2,100-home community under construction near the Lockwood-area home of Pamela and Terry Sible.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year it gets worse and worse,\u201d Terry Sible said of traffic in the area.<\/p>\n
Pamela Sible said the congestion on Colonial Drive has affected commutes for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to work downtown, and if you didn\u2019t hit the right timing, you were stuck an hour to get downtown,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Sibles said they are cautiously optimistic about the widening project, but they also have concerns about parts of the plan. The project includes a new school bus access road for East River High School, which they worry could bring more traffic into their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep fighting,\u201d Terry Sible said. \u201cWe win some battles, but whether we\u2019re going to win the war or not, that\u2019s another question. Only time will tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pamela Sible said she hopes the project improves safety and traffic flow while preserving the area\u2019s rural character.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the improvements by FDOT in Orange County give us more safety … and relieve the gridlock,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The FDOT open house is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, July 23, at Boardwalk Bowl\u2019s Bridge Event Center, 10749 E. Colonial Drive in Orlando.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Orange County is contributing $20 million to help accelerate a long-delayed project to widen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[767,274,28,7444,2176,115,1335,139,141,140,278,729],"class_list":["post-348372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-florida","tag-getting-there","tag-jerry-hume","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-top-stories","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348372","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=348372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}