New Toll Roads for Osceola and Polk Counties in FL

[roadman65]

http://www.osceola-parkway.com/project-map-beltway.html#bottom

I Just found this website and noticed that there are plans to extend Osceola Parkway to connect with another proposed toll road called the North-East Expressway that will circle St. Cloud, FL and loop around to the south of it and connect with the FL Turnpike near Canoe Creek Service Plaza.  In addition there is to be a highway called the Poinciana Parkway as well as a toll road called the Central Polk Parkway that I am guessing will be a relief route for US 27, as the map cuts it off on the bottom.

[NE2]

Use the Goog.
http://www.osceolaxway.com/
http://www.centralpolkparkway.com/

[roadman65]

Yeah I saw it!  It is going to be a two part project of two that will make a beltway of Winter Haven.  Part 1 will go from  SR 570, at the point it curves to the north at Exit 14 and head SE to US 17 between Eagle Lake and Bartow.  It seems they got the go and it will be an extension of the Polk Parkway as far as toll collections go. 

Anyway, I think the part from US 27 to I-4 is a good idea considering how congested US 27's become.  A friend of mine who was a paramedic for Polk County, said that US 27 through Haines City area was knicknamed the "Bloody 27."  Also the Poinciana Parkway is a good idea as it would help that region out so much.  Poinciana and Solavida are so populated it needs more roads for relieving and a direct route to I-4, that it presently does not have.

[realjd]

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

EDIT: That's assuming the new roads are all freeways. Brevard's new beltway around Palm Bay is going to be a surface "expressway" with regular traffic lights.

[roadman65]

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

EDIT: That's assuming the new roads are all freeways. Brevard's new beltway around Palm Bay is going to be a surface "expressway" with regular traffic lights.

You may be right considering that the Osceola Parkway is an expressway turned arterial, so it would be like Osceola County to build another facility like that.

[NE2]

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

Have you tried CR 15 to 417? It's now all 4+ lanes.

[realjd]

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

Have you tried CR 15 to 417? It's now all 4+ lanes.

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

Have you tried CR 15 to 417? It's now all 4+ lanes.

To get to the airport, if I'm tired of the 528 I'll usually take CR15 to Boggy Creek. I hadn't considered doing that to get to the 417 on my way to Tampa.

I did see last week that the construction on Narcoossee was finally done. To be honest, I prefered it when it was 2 lanes with a speed limit of 55. The road is nice and wide now but is slow...

[roadman65]

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

Have you tried CR 15 to 417? It's now all 4+ lanes.

If all that happened overnight it would certainly make it much easier for me to drive to the MCO airport and Tampa. 192 would feed into the Orlando-area freeway network without having to drive through stupid St. Cloud. As it stands now it's almost always quicker to drive all the way up to the 528.

Have you tried CR 15 to 417? It's now all 4+ lanes.

To get to the airport, if I'm tired of the 528 I'll usually take CR15 to Boggy Creek. I hadn't considered doing that to get to the 417 on my way to Tampa.

I did see last week that the construction on Narcoossee was finally done. To be honest, I prefered it when it was 2 lanes with a speed limit of 55. The road is nice and wide now but is slow...

Osceola County is the only place a road gets its speed limit reduced when more lanes are added.  Pleasant Hill Road used to be 55 mph. when it was two lanes, now since they dualized it, it got dropped down to 45 mph.   Then you have Dyer Boulevard that was originally 2 lanes and 45 mph that got widened to four lanes and another situation with a 10 mph drop.  Need I say more.

In many other places the speed limit is raised when more lanes are added.  I-4 went to 70 mph west of US 27 when it was widened to six lanes where it was 65 mph as a four lane roadway.  Then FL 520 was originally two lanes between I-95 and SR 50 with a legal maximum of 55 mph that later got raised to 65 mph when the road was widened.  Osceola County seems to be the only place other than OBT in the Southchase area, going from 55 to 50 when it was widened from four to six lanes, but that was long coming as 55 mph was too high at the previous time, as development began to congest that stretch in previous years.

[NE2]

Osceola County is not the only place a road gets its speed limit reduced when more lanes are added.

Fixed for you.

[Revive 755]

Those widening projects aren't perchance changing the road from having shoulders to no shoulder curb and gutter?  Some agencies don't allow roads without at least a four foot shoulder between the edge of the travel lane and the curb to be posted higher than 45 due to the threat of vehicles becoming airborne when they hit the curb, IIRC.

[roadman65]

Those widening projects aren't perchance changing the road from having shoulders to no shoulder curb and gutter?  Some agencies don't allow roads without at least a four foot shoulder between the edge of the travel lane and the curb to be posted higher than 45 due to the threat of vehicles becoming airborne when they hit the curb, IIRC.

On Dyer Boulevard there is plenty of more room to the side of the road being that a bike lane was added to the road post construction.

Also to note, in other issues Osceola County they do seem to have proven backward methods of doing things.  Even two intersections in Kissimmee that both had mast arm signaling, were replaced with span wire signal assemblies.  Where most of Florida is replacing the traditional span wires with mast arms for better appearence and hurricane protection, Osceola County is doing quite the opposite here.  Although we do not get many hurricanes here and span wire signals are much cheaper to build and maintain, my point is that it is the second case of reverse logic in thinking.