FDOT announced<\/a> the opening of two additional lanes on I-4 in Polk and Osceola Counties, much earlier than planned.<\/p>\n\u201cLike you saw with the congestion relief lanes that were eight months ahead of schedule, that just kind of shows an example of the speed that we\u2019re working at,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n
Project 1 will improve 2.6 miles of I-4 in Osceola County from east of World Drive to east of U.S. 192. This project will add ramps from I-4 and the proposed express lanes that will directly connect to State Road 417.<\/p>\n
Project 2 will construct ramps from I-4 to State Road 429 and add a ramp to the Poinciana Connector. This project will also widen Old Lake Wilson Road from two to four lanes.<\/p>\n
Phil and Diana Boyce attended the meeting to learn more specifically about Project 5, the most contentious, which will construct a new 3.5-mile road called the Poinciana Connector that will link to the Central Florida Expressway\u2019s Poinciana Parkway Extension.<\/p>\n
The road project will offer booming Poinciana a direct connection to I-4 and a ramp to County Road 532.<\/p>\n
The Boyces, originally from New Jersey, bought a townhome in 2010 overlooking a small forest in Reunion, a master-planned resort and residential community in western Osceola County near Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n
But now the couple is looking to sell their home as FDOT builds an elevated toll road connecting to I-4 just 100 feet from their backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping it would be done after my lifetime, but apparently it starts in January,\u201d Diana said. \u201cI\u2019m overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple owns a second slightly larger home in Reunion and had planned to retire there and sell the townhome. Now they say they\u2019re worried about the value of the townhome with the Poinciana Connector in their backyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was going to come out here [to the yard] that would be the last thing I would want is to have a highway,\u201d Diana said. \u201cI don\u2019t think that would be the choice of many people.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also said they\u2019re concerned about the noise and potential for crashes in their backyard, but they said there\u2019s not much they can do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just wear earplugs if I have to,\u201d Phil said. \u201cI-4 is so backed up in both directions, so now they\u2019re doing what they have to do and certain people have to pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some residents, though, say the overhaul can\u2019t start soon enough.<\/p>\n
Jim Albon is a retired engineer from Ohio who bought his home in Reunion roughly four years ago. He splits his time between the two states but spends the majority of it in Florida, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know the traffic is out there,\u201d Albon said. \u201cAnytime you want to go anywhere, you\u2019ve got to plan that it\u2019ll take you 40 minutes or more.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he hopes the project will alleviate some congestion, but he\u2019s skeptical.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe express lanes will help,\u201d Albon said. \u201cBut the problem is that the more roads they build, the more people come in and continue to build more \u2026 and the infrastructure is not there to support them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albon said he\u2019s also doubtful that the projects will be completed as quickly as FDOT says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Albon said. \u201cIt seems to be a lot of work to do in that little years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gillian Wolfe and her husband Joe, who moved to the U.S. from Canada, bought a home along the I-4 corridor in Polk County about eight years ago. Wolfe said the couple travels at least once a year to the airport to visit their four kids and grandkids in Canada, she hopes the projects will decrease their travel time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always leave at least an hour [early] to travel to the airport,\u201d Gillian said. \u201cI think the added lanes on I-4 would be a benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Project 3, not yet slated to begin, will improve 3.4 miles of I-4 from west of U.S. 27 to west of Champions Gate Boulevard in Polk County. The project will add two express lanes in each direction and add ramps connecting I-4 to the U.S. 27 interchange.<\/p>\n
Project 4, expected to be built simultaneously with Project 3, will improve 2.1 miles of the interstate from west of Osceola parkway to east of World Center Drive in Orange and Osceola counties. This project will also extend express lanes, add ramps connecting I-4 to State Road 536 and reconstruct an aging bridge at the Osceola Parkway Interchange over Bonnet Creek.<\/p>\n
All these projects will eventually connect to FDOT\u2019s earlier $2.3 billion overhaul, the I-4 Ultimate, which was completed in 2022 and added express lanes, ramps and interchange improvements to a 21-mile stretch through metro Orlando.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just three years after the lengthy and expansive I-4 Ultimate venture in Central Florida was finally completed, construction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[168,28,114,266,115,139,141,140,1976,3689,109,1798],"class_list":{"0":"post-53056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-celebration","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-orlando","14":"tag-orlando-headlines","15":"tag-orlando-news","16":"tag-osceola-county","17":"tag-poinciana","18":"tag-social","19":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53056","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=53056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}