If you’ve ever found yourself crawling through traffic on I-4 and wondering if you’d ever make it to Disney World before sundown, we’ve got some good news.
A stretch of the highway that’s usually bumper-to-bumper just got a little easier to handle. Here’s the latest scoop!
A small miracle just happened: The Florida Department of Transportation just opened two new “congestion relief” lanes along a 6.1-mile stretch of I-4! They run from just east of U.S. 27 in Polk County to World Drive near Disney Springs. That means four lanes instead of three in each direction—for now.
Some of the lanes even opened a few days early last week, catching regular commuters off guard (in the best way possible).
According to FDOT, this stretch of I-4 has been one of the worst in the entire nation for traffic. And not just during rush hour—any hour. So they decided to tackle it early, even before the massive full I-4 rebuild gets going.
Why this section first? More than 140,000 vehicles use it every single day. And based on the reactions so far, the extra lane is doing its job. Chadd Canode, who commutes from Davenport to Orlando every day, noticed the change right away. “What used to take 20 to 30 minutes to go five or six miles now is a mile a minute,” he said.
This isn’t the end of the I-4 glow-up. There’s a $2.5 billion makeover in the works to improve even more of the highway—adding express toll lanes, wider shoulders, and better exits. Those express lanes will eventually stretch more than 21 miles for Polk County drivers who don’t mind paying to skip the slowdowns.
Just don’t expect the whole highway to get the four-lane treatment. In some areas, the new lanes will still have to merge back into three lanes.
This is just the beginning of a much bigger plan to improve I-4. Construction on the larger projects is expected to kick off by the end of the year, though there’s no set completion date yet. In the meantime, this small win is making a big difference for drivers.
Stay tuned to us here on AllEars for all the latest updates!
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What are your thoughts on this I-4 construction update? Let us know in the comments!
It would be better if Doc McStuffins would still be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!