The first ramp of the new Interstate 4 and Florida 408 Toll interchange opened this morning, carrying drivers from the eastbound toll road to the northbound freeway. A $120 million project is underway to replace some of the original movements between the East-West Tollway and Interstate 4. Included in this initial project is a new flyover to carry westbound Florida 408 to eastbound Interstate 4, the directional loop ramp that [...]
An update on the Maitland Boulevard Extension / John Land Apopka Expressway (Florida 414 Toll). Nine miles of new freeway style roadway is either proposed or under construction from U.S. 441 in Lockhart to U.S. 441 northwest of Apopka. One year of work has produced significant results in northwestern Orange County. A tour of the work follows below: A refresher view of the John Land Apopka Expressway projected [...]
One of the newest freeways planned in Florida is that of the Branan Field-Chaffee Expressway, State Road 23. Running north-south between Florida 21 (Blanding Boulevard) and Interstate 10, the four-lane freeway is presently either under construction or in the design stages. Beginning in Middleburg, a two-lane surface highway leads north from Blanding Boulevard to the Clay County line. Portions of this roadway lie within or along the freeway right-of-way, other [...]
This past weekend afforded me with the opportunity to check on the status of some upper Gulf Coast road projects related to the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The August 29, 2005 landfall of the historic storm not only devastated the New Orleans and Mississippi coastal area homes and businesses, but also washed out several key stretches of highway infrastructure. Included in the storm's fury was the destruction of the U.S. [...]
OOCEA-installed Clearview font on SR 417 Steven Delery sends us a photo of new overheads installed on the Central Florida Greeneway northbound for Florida 408 Toll (East-West Expressway). New Clearview signs are generally located on the eastern outskirts of Orlando. This particular assembly replaced these signs.
A recent trip from Florida to Biloxi shed some light on new and ongoing construction projects throughout the upper Gulf Coast. First, a widening project is well underway now along Interstate 10 through the Tallahassee area. Dubbed "Moving I-10 Forward", the work involves widening the freeway between milepost 194 and Exit 202, reconstructing the U.S. 27 half-cloverleaf interchange with more graceful ramps, and adding new ramps between Interstate 10 and [...]
Like the Polk County Widening, our highway guides for Interstate 4 throughout Florida are complete. Added were photos showing the new Exit 60 interchange with Florida 429 Toll (Daniel Webster Western Beltway), widening underway in Volusia County, completed widening in Polk, the new viaducts and carriageways in Tampa, and every east and westbound exit. Work still continues on Interstate 4 at the U.S. 192 interchange in northern Osceola and with [...]
My co-worker Mark mentioned that in a recent Pinellas County Planning Organization meeting, the concept of upgrading the planned freeway of Bryan Dairy Road (Pinellas County 296), between Interstate 275 and U.S. 19 in St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park, Florida as Interstate 475. He says it was mentioned two or three times in the meeting. I've not found anything on their website to confirm this, nor can I find any [...]
Construction began January 19, 2007 on the newest toll facility in the greater Orlando metropolitan area, that of the John Land Apopka Expressway (Maitland Boulevard Extension). Planned since the late 1990s initially as a free arterial route, the highway became under the jurisdiction of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority when funding was unavailable for the original Maitland Boulevard extension. Design work is now complete on the 5.5-mile long Stage 1 [...]
Interstate 10 drivers have one less issue to worry about when traveling through the Pensacola, Florida area now. Crews recently finished work on the first of two replacement spans for the Hurricane Ivan-damaged bridges over Escambia Bay. The new span, situated just south of the original bridges, currently carries two lanes of traffic in both directions. That is a temporary arrangement as construction workers continue to build the future westbound-only [...]
