ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Plans to extend the 408 farther east into Bithlo have hit a major roadblock that could be enough to kill the project, county officials said.
The Central Florida Expressway Authority said last October that it wanted expand the toll road from where it stops at Challenger Parkway to State Road 520.
Leaders said the road's expansion is key to keeping up with Central Florida's growth in the next couple of decades, but plans put the expansion along Highway 50.
Leaders started planning for the 408 to run all the way Interstate 95 and hoped they could piggyback on Highway 50, which already cuts through Orange County.
"There are accidents and bad drivers and traffic, and it's just the worst road in town, as far as I'm concerned, besides I-4," resident Karen Dinkins said. "It takes an hour and a half to go the back roads to Altamonte without using any of the toll roads, but it's worth it not to be on Highway 50."
Expressway authority officials estimate that Highway 50 will be unable to cope with the number of drivers on the road in 20 years.
"Finding out that now, we can't even use the right of way within, you know, the state Highway 50 corridor, is a big blow for sure," Commissioner Scott Boyd said.
Boyd, the MetroPlan chair, said local leaders could have sped through an approval and saved money with a six-month delay to the state's existing plans for 50.
"An alternative would be having to go through numerous communities, which would be highly controversial and extremely expensive," Boyd said.
Boyd said there's a chance that plans to extend the 408 could be dead for good.
Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs is meeting with the Florida Department of Transportation to try to save the project.
FDOT said in a statement late Wednesday afternoon:
FDOT was only recently made aware of CFX's interest in accessing the State Road 50 corridor for an extension of State Road 408. FDOT is already well under way expanding SR 50 and is currently constructing additional lanes to provide relief to the travelling public in eastern Orange County. Including the proposal to include an extension of SR 408 this late in the construction process would unnecessarily delay an important and needed project.
Cox Media Group
