State Road 417 widening to start in June — Construction is already in full swing for the Interstate 4 Ultimate Project, but that’s not the only major headache for commuters.
This summer, crews will begin widening the State Road 417 as well.
State transportation officials will add lanes in three places on the Greenway and Beachline to help ease congestion, but those lanes will include premium toll lanes for drivers to get around congestion.
Some on the MetroPlan board wanted to hold off on the State Road 417 construction because with construction on Interstate 4 and other surrounding roads, some felt drivers were annoyed enough.
Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, the executive director of Florida Turnpike Enterprise, which owns and operates the Turnpike’s toll system, said last year that the state understood from the board that the project was a go.
Seven months of money and time has already been invested on the project.
“Candidly, there are consequences today to stopping this project in its tracks,” said Gutierrez-Scaccetti.
The board said it was blindsided.
“I think we still believed that there was still an opportunity for us to put our foot down and say, ‘This is the wrong time to go forward with the decision,’” said Orange County Major Teresa Jacobs.
In the end, the board decided it had no choice but to go ahead with the plan.
Widening is expected to start in June.
The board still hopes for more talks on the tolls and the state may be open to that.
There is still discussion between the state and the Expressway Authority on swapping parts of the road, which would change the project dramatically.
Cox Media Group
