Local

Orange Co. to build $28M John Young Pkwy flyover

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Only Eyewitness News discovered parts of a multimillion-dollar road project under construction will be torn up once it's finished.

The project is happening at a section of John Young Parkway.

Another project is on the books to build an overpass so that John Young Parkway goes over Sand Lake Road in the same area.

Channel 9's Racquel Asa asked the county why it spent the extra money to rework the same stretch of road.

About 100,000 cars travel that route each day, and each one deals with all the construction barrels.

"A lot of stop and go. It's a pain. I can't wait for it to get done," driver Keith Hurley said.

It's a little tricky for Hurley riding through construction zones on his bike, especially through the area where John Young Parkway is getting widened from four to six lanes.

Orange County started the $18 million project last September, and it still has until next July to finish the job.

According to a county construction report once the project is done, the county and state plan to spend roughly $28 million more to build a flyover so drivers can travel on John Young Parkway without having to pass through Sand Lake Road.

"It is a waste. They should have done it all together to save more time," driver Felicia Genius said.

So we asked the county why it bothered moving forward with the current widening project if they knew they would eventually build a flyover.

The county said state money for the flyover wasn't secured until after they already started the project.

The county decided to hold off on some intersection improvements, like changing the traffic lights, until the entire flyover project gets started.

The county said it's still in the process of designing how the whole area will look once the overpass is complete, but it is expecting work to start on that project at the end of 2015.

The county said drivers will have about a year and half between projects and most of the current widening on John Young Parkway will continue when they start building the flyover.