The recent plans for the Colonial Overpass Project have revealed plans to expand Colonial Drive, in a project that we’ve seen referred to repeatedly in City documents as “Ultimate Colonial.”
Colonial Drive is currently composed of primarily five 10-foot lanes as it passes through the downtown core. As it gets closer to the interstate, it become six to seven lanes instead.
The Ultimate I-4 project is going to convert the portion of Colonial that intersects with the interstate into an interchange more like the one at Colonial and Semoran with an extra left-turn lane, and an expansion of one more foot per additional lane. In other words, Colonial Drive is going to be slightly widened as it goes under I-4.
Not according to the current plan. It will require you to drive past the lake then cross Colonial and take the current entrance from Hughey, or the new ramp that will be installed on Hughey before you get to Amelia. Not sure how all the ramps to and from the toll lanes will work. That wasn’t in the original plans, but was a requirement of the contract that was awarded. Somehow, they’ve promised that you’ll be able to access the toll lanes and the free lanes directly at all entrances and exits along I-4. I’ve never seen that on any other project, because usually the toll lanes are to be express lanes that take you from point A to point B, with few or no exits in between.
Had to go to Lee Road today and it got me thinking: What are the plans for Ultimate Lee Road? Ultimate Fairbanks? Ultimate Princeton?
Not true. Not even close. Look into it.
Can you still get on going west from Ivanhoe or do you have to take access road at at grade across Lake Concord (nice view for those taxpayers) to light crossing 50 and get on from Hughey ramp?
Alex Rich – it’s not “exactly the same”…
Major changes…including no more East bound Ivanhoe exit…
SMH.
U0001f614
“I-4 Ultimate will fix that.
Yes yes!!! Let’s start another road construction project.
Lol. I-4 ultimate. I love how it’s EXACTLY THE SAME plus toll lanes. THANKS!!
They’re 25 years behind where they should be right now anyway, so this doesn’t surprise me.
Good. That interchange is horrible.
Yes, they are. This is a project that started planning over 20 years ago based on a vision created on the way things were back then when everyone was still fleeing to the suburbs rather than living closer to work. It’s designed to cut the City even wider apart so those who live in the burbs can move through downtown at 35 rather than 15 miles per hour during rush hours. They used eminent domain to take a lot of land for retention ponds that later technological advances and public outcry made unnecessary. When it’s all done, it’s my hope that use of the toll lanes is so low that it goes bankrupt.
Yeah, the way it looks now, there are not even pedestrian crosswalks nor bicycle lanes. Just doing it like they did at 436 and Colonial completely ignores the fact that, unlike that area, this area is residential and small businesses and offices in all directions. 436 and Colonial was a 6 lane highway crossing another 6+ lane highway in a non-residential, commercially intensive area with big box retail in all directions. To shove this same type of pavement wasteland into this residential area will further isolate the Creative Village, South College Park, and North Parramore residents from the downtown North Quarter and vice versa.
Ugh, yeah the 408 interchange is horrible.
So much for the pedestrian overpass..? Where that in the rendering
Thanks, these projects are opportunities for the community but can easily be squandered if there is not community engagement in the planning process – too often the government acts in silos – hopefully in this instance they aren’t just focusing on traffic flow but have a balanced focus on pedestrians, cars and local businesses….
The light green in the water there is from all the algae blooms and pollution from the construction and carbon monoxide from the huge amount of bottlenecked traffic.
Now if they would just fix the Godforsaken I-4/408E interchange that is the 5th ring of hell during my PM commute, that would be GREAT. ;p
We’ll share more details as they come up Jorge! Right now there’s just isolated renderings.
You mean to tell us they are using old data from 1999 for this project?? they cant be that stupid or are they??
Can you post a link to where you found this info? Am very curious to learn more. Thanks for the info!
I know, but did it account for all the new growth in that area?
Fyi the decision to close Ivanhoe exit was done in 2002 based on 1999 data. This is from fldot own admission.
That’s why I started a page called Save Ivanhoe Exits but I’ve had zero success in even getting our rep. Mike Miller to call me back.
It added 10-15 minutes to my commute to get around the other roads, when I had direct road to my house. Plus all the businesses on Orange were impacted as well as all those apt/condo residents. It seems that the engineer planners did not consider resident use of I-4. Only for commuters and tourists.
You think it’s bad now, wait until those new apt/condos go in behind Ivanhoe row and College Park. That Princeton exit could be backed up on to I4
Getting rid of the Ivanhoe exit east bound is still one of the dumbest moves.