Gabrielle Russon
Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that a road construction project to add more lanes on a busy stretch of Interstate 4 outside Disney World will be completed later this month, ahead of schedule.
The extra lanes running in both directions on I-4 between U.S. 27 in Polk County to World Drive in Osceola County, will be open the week of April 28, eight months sooner than originally planned, DeSantis said at the Kissimmee press conference.
“Anyone who has tried to drive around ChampionsGate knows why infrastructure would be on the agenda,” DeSantis said. “This will really be a sigh of relief for a lot of people. It doesn’t solve everything,” he added, because “we got a lot of other ChampionsGate projects and Poinciana Parkway, that’s all moving.”
Currently, Florida has 700 active construction projects happening, as the state has already spent $7 billion.
DeSantis pitched Moving Florida Forward in 2023 to prioritize road construction projects in some of the most congested parts of Florida. Doing so will keep people from being stuck in traffic jams and keep goods moving through the roadways, DeSantis said.
“There are projects in the queue that are now being brought to fruition that likely wouldn’t have broke ground until the middle of next decade,” DeSantis said. “We have at least 20 major interstate and roadway projects that have been expedited through Moving Florida Forward.”
“The economic impact of Moving Florida forward just in the I-4 region, we estimate to be over $13 billion,” he added
Other projects include adding regular and express lanes on Interstate 275 in Pinellas County, redesigning the Interstate 95 Golden Glades interchange in Miami, and reconstructing Sarasota County’s Interstate 75 Fruitville Road interchange into a diverging diamond design.
The road construction projects will help the state during hurricane evacuations, DeSantis said.
“Our total investment in infrastructure over the next five years is going to approach $70 billion in projects, and most of the focus is reducing congestion and improving the safety of Floridians,” DeSantis said.
