Almost a year ago, construction started in our area on the Western Beltway — a new, albeit tolled, way to get downtown without going through the worst of tourist-infested South Orlando. There were months of earth-moving and pile-driving, preparing for the overpass and interchange on the existing highway.
As of late, we hadn't seen any major construction going on. Lots of dump trucks coming and going, but nothing visible. That changed this week, with some new, vertical construction.
Of course, that construction was to make the columns of the toll plazas for the nowhere-near-finished road-to-be. At least we know they will be ready to charge money from Day One, whenever the road does get finished.
But if the building of said road makes them build an east/west access road from Hwy 27 to that road (and passing 545 on the way) I will gladly pay tolls. When you want to go east to Orlando and you either have to fight 192 traffic or drive all the way up to King's Ridge it gets to be a pain. I could probably cut 10 minutes off my commute each day from home to MetroWest (and back) with such a road. WooHoo!
ReplyDeleteWell - we all know what is important to the Expressway Authority. One of the many things that drives me crazy about Orlando is that in the city proper, if you can find out where that is, it is fairly easy to go North to South, but it is next to impossible to go East to West. Besides the East/West and Colonial, those are about your only choices - the entire Aloma/Fairbanks thing is a disaster. And 436 doesn't count as an East/West road to me. My thought it to blow the whole place up and start over - is that to drastic?
ReplyDeleteWell, first order of business, is how to pay for the construction? So there you have it, the Tolls are ready. :-). I will use it when I go to your house.
ReplyDeleteCola Boy: At one point, I thought I'd seen a proposal to extend Lakeland's Polk Parkway across I-4 and meet up with 27 between 192 and 50. I agree, I'd love to see that extend across to the new 429. The closest interchange on the Western Expressway is on Avalon Rd and Seidel... but it's Southbound only! (Read: useless)
ReplyDeleteSpider: Maybe not the WHOLE thing... but we could bulldoze a few Windermere mansions, and that would help east-west flow on the south end.
Jorge: ...or when you visit your sister's house. ;)
I wouldn't mind seeing some of those ritzy houses be blown up to allow better traffic flow out west.
ReplyDelete