Overhaul to begin where I-4, 408 meet
The road work in Orlando won't slow drivers more than usual, officials say.
Jay Hamburg | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 19, 2006
Grab your steering wheels and grit your teeth because this is going to sting.
In the coming days, radical surgery will begin on the spot where Interstate 4 crosses under the East-West Expressway in downtown Orlando.
That's Central Florida's busiest interchange -- the commuter backbone at its sorest point.
The $120 million project, which starts April 3, is designed to relieve traffic-swollen choke points and smooth the connections between I-4 and the expressway, State Road 408. The work is the region's largest roadway project to date.
The massive undertaking is set to start off with a bang when demolition experts implode the Orlando Utilities Commission parking garage within the first week of work to make way for an easier-access ramp from westbound S.R. 408 to I-4 east. It is scheduled to end three years later with a new set of downtown ramps surrounding an interchange that already handles more than 200,000 vehicles a day.
Complex in scope, the work is the first step in what eventually could be a nine-story stack of interwoven roads at the interchange.
By the end of this year, construction might be under way at five or more sites along I-4 between Gore Street in the south and Amelia Street in the north as workers close four ramps and build seven new ones.
What happens when this massive project mixes with commuters in a metro area rated as the nation's ninth-worst congested?
Transportation officials admit commuters might feel a bit anxious and frustrated. But construction will not slow drivers any more than usual, said Steve Homan, spokesman for Florida Department of
Transportation's District 5 office.
"During normal commuting hours, it won't be worse," Homan said. "Which means it won't be good."
FDOT and the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority will pay for the project. HNTB Corp. will oversee the work.
Some lane and ramp closures will occur during overnight construction, but the state promises to impose fines on contractors who do not follow stringent guidelines to keep traffic moving. There will be some temporary lane shifts during business hours, but lane closures will be between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on the highways and between 7:30 p.m. and 6 a.m. on the side streets.
Commuters will be able to see alerts and get updates on the work at trans4mation.org. A Longwood communications firm, Global 5, will be handling public information.
New pathways
By the time the project is completed, commuters will notice several major changes.
Drivers heading eastbound on I-4 will no longer be able to exit at Anderson Street or Robinson Street. Instead, a long exit lane that begins south of Gore Street will take them to a spot by South Street and Garland Avenue.
Drivers going west on I-4 will find the exit ramp closed at Gore Street and a new exit opened at the new Anderson Street bridge, which moves a bit farther south.
Drivers on S.R. 408 will find simplified entrance ramps from the westbound and eastbound lanes onto I-4 east. The project does not change routes from S.R. 408 to I-4 west.
The three-year venture will not add any lanes to the interstate or to the expressway. But it takes a lot of traffic away from the long curving ramps on the west side of the Griffin Park Apartments public housing.
Built decades ago, those ramps follow a "trumpet pattern," which was once a common way to join a toll road to a free highway, said Bryan Douglas, a spokesman for the expressway authority, which is putting $53 million into the project.
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Overhaul to begin where I-4, 408 meet 
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