ORLANDO, Fla. — A new interchange meant to give drivers on State Road 417 better access to the Orlando International Airport will open Friday.
The Boggy Creek Road interchange will open around 4 p.m. in time for the evening rush hour.
OIA officials said one-fifth of the airport's traffic, or around 27,000 cars a day, comes from the south.
The new flyover interchange eliminates the lights and intersections and helps get drivers to the south side of the airport.
"There's such a flow of folks from the south coming to the airport to utilize the airport and for employment that were spending a lot of their time sitting in traffic, and this will really help them be able to get to work on time (and) help them get home a lot faster," Central Florida Expressway Authority Chairman Welton Cadwell said.
Because of the bottleneck, drivers will see more nighttime lane closures at the interchange with U.S. 408 as part of the $27 million project to widen U.S. 417 from Berry Dease Road to U.S. 408 from two to three lanes.
OIA officials expect traffic from the south to double in the next few years once the airport's expansion is complete.
Cox Media Group
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