OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – Drivers along one section of Interstate 4 are seeing shorter travel times with the opening of new congestion relief lanes.
On Monday, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) opened an extra lane on I-4 in each direction from World Drive in Osceola County to U.S. 27 in Polk County
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The lanes were designed to relieve congestion in one of the busiest sections of I-4, which FDOT said is traveled by more than 140,000 people on a daily basis.
“Delivery of this critically needed transportation improvement in record time demonstrates how impactful transportation funding can be for Floridians,” FDOT Assistant Secretary of Engineering and Operations Will Watts said.
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Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the relief lanes would open eight months ahead of schedule.
“We’re excited to deliver this innovative and accelerated congestion relief lane to the I-4 Corridor, and we will be maintaining this lane while we build the needed future improvements,” Watts said.
The relief lanes are part of a much larger 14-mile expansion of I-4 called Moving I-4 Forward. The project will eventually extend express lanes into Polk County.
Mayra Salva uses I-4 to drive to work everyday and was excited to hear about the extra lanes.
“That’s great. Hopefully it does work,” Salva said. “Things will definitely move quicker. It’ll be a good thing for sure.”
As work continues on Moving I-4 Forward, drivers can learn more details about the expansion at MovingI4forward.com.
