Touting it as \u201ca major milestone,\u201d transportation officials on Tuesday approved a controversial $2.5 billion road project set to reduce congestion but also pave through environmentally sensitive land in southern Osceola County.<\/p>\n
The unanimous decision by the Central Florida Expressway Authority in favor of the Southport Connector, a 15-mile tolled expressway that will traverse the Florida Wildlife Corridor and pass near the Disney Wilderness Preserve, marks the final step in a project more than seven years in the making, overcoming lawsuits, public scrutiny and low toll projections.<\/p>\n
The scale and investment of the Connector will \u201crival projects like I-4 Ultimate and the Wekiva Parkway,\u201d said Will Hawthorne, CFX\u2019s director of transportation planning and policy. \u201c[It] will mark a major milestone, opening the door to potential next steps needed to deliver this critically improved, important regional transportation facility.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Central](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/tos-l-cfx-alternative-route.jpg\")
Central Florida Expressway Authority approved the Southport Connector on Thursday. The 15-mile tolled expressway in southern Osceola County will extend from the Poinciana Parkway to Pleasant Hill Road and continuing east to Florida\u2019s Turnpike and cost over $2 billion. (CFX)<\/p>\n
However, the project is still expected to fall short in projected toll revenue to cover its cost, the same issue that caused the CFX board in 2018 to abandon the expressway.<\/p>\n
Roughly seven years ago, CFX estimated the toll revenue over 40 years to cover only between 17% to 29% of the project\u2019s cost, a figure that did not meet the agency\u2019s policy of a 50% minimum for project viability. But on Thursday, despite projected toll revenue of $740 million still only covering 29% of the Southport Connector, the board moved to approve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a project that\u2019s been discussed in Osceola County my entire life and this is the closest it\u2019s ever come to reality,\u201d said board member Brandon Arrington, who represents Osceola County. \u201cI would ask the board to allow me to continue to work with our staff to look for partnerships and also perhaps phasing opportunities that might be able to bring that percentage a little higher so we can continue moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project will offer Poinciana residents a hybrid bridge-and-wall model above congested Cypress Parkway, extending from Poinciana Parkway to Pleasant Hill Road and continuing east to Florida\u2019s Turnpike. The project will also improve several intersections along county roads for those travelling locally, a deal that shifted the mindset of many who were in stark opposition.<\/p>\n
Still, Janet Bowman, the senior policy analyst at The Nature Conservancy in Florida who manage the Disney Wilderness preserve, said the group has \u201cmajor concerns\u201d over their ability to conduct prescribed burns that reduce wildfire risk and aid in habitat management. The road project will have a \u201cdetrimental impact\u201d for prescribed burns on 3,500 acres of the preserve, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will narrow the window of the time of year, the number of days that we can burn,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0going to reduce it by about 34%.\u201d<\/p>\n
But many residents who spoke at meetings on the proposal said they\u2019re fed up with traffic and are relying on this road project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s about 90,000 people that now live in Poinciana,\u201d said George Arnold, a longtime Osceola County resident. \u201cThere\u2019s one way in and one way out, and it\u2019s desperate that we have this highway.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Touting it as \u201ca major milestone,\u201d transportation officials on Tuesday approved a controversial $2.5 billion road project set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[28,114,266,115,139,141,140,1976,109,1798],"class_list":{"0":"post-80396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-headlines","14":"tag-orlando-news","15":"tag-osceola-county","16":"tag-social","17":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80396","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=80396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}