The Interstate Is Crumbling. Try Fixing the Section Used by 200,000 Vehicles a Day.

The Wall Street Journal ^ | May 28, 2019 | Arian Campo-Flores and Paul Overberg

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

ORLANDO, Fla.—The state dubbed it the I-4 Ultimate for its grand scope. For some here, it’s more like the ultimate headache.

A reconstruction of 21 miles of congested interstate highway through the heart of Orlando will build or rebuild 140 bridges, redesign 15 interchanges, move exits and add new toll lanes, in a $2.3 billion project to smooth traffic through one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities.

Dense cities have grown up around the aging freeways, hemming them in so that expensive engineering feats are needed to do work on them. Yet work is often unavoidable. I-4, for instance, was built in the 1960s to handle 70,000 vehicles a day. Now it is jammed with up to 200,000.

Patrick Kling drives to his downtown job each day through the highway reconstruction zone. He sometimes finds the route bewildering.

Under the contract, the builder must keep the same number of lanes operating during the day as there were before construction started. The result is a repeatedly altered traffic flow, with on-ramps and off-ramps periodically shut down and detours posted.

Construction crews regularly shift lanes leftward onto medians or rightward onto shoulders to accommodate workers and equipment, which must be walled off from the traffic by concrete barriers. Workers have reduced each lane’s width by a foot to gain space for construction, crowding the cars that are navigating the shifting lanes.

To help drivers cope, the project created an interactive map showing the latest road closures and a YouTube channel that lets people visualize how to maneuver before they face the changes at highway speed . . .

[ronnie raygun]

Those who are in control are more concerned with illegal immigrants and their families right now. Your roads that get you to work so they can squander and lavish your tax dollars on people who shouldn’t be here is a priority and If you disagree we will shut you down

[ronnie raygun]

Those who are in control are more concerned with illegal immigrants and their families right now. Your roads that get you to work so they can squander and lavish your tax dollars on people who shouldn’t be here is a priority and If you disagree we will shut you down

[napscoordinator]

Florida has no state tax and our property taxes are cheap!!!!!! Food and water are the only irems more expensive then other states. The tolls are annoying but since they are taking out toll booths, you don’t realize the tolls. Overall Florida is very affordable. At least with tolls, you can make a choice to drive on non toll roads and get to the destination about 10 minutes later then taking the toll. Not awful.

[napscoordinator]

What? The state that just banned Sanctuary cities. Yeah ok.

[Joe Boucher]

As a logistics officer trying to get equipment and personnel from one side of Europe to the other to do battle, Dwight D. At times founf it nearly impossible..
He came up with the American interstate system.
Hundreds of billions spent, BUT today people, goods, and if necessary military equipment can get from one side of America to the other with relative ease.
Thank you Mr. Eisenhouer

[Rock N Jones]

I 4 connects to I 95 on the east coast and I 75 on the west coast.
However one might say that I 4 through Orlando is a parking lot and not an interstate highway!

[bert]

The road is built to Interstate standards and is incorporated into the ttal system

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

In the fwiw dept, if you are not driving at least 80 mph on I4 between Lakeland and the exit to Disney World, stay in the far right hand lane.

This has been a public service announcement.

5.56mm

[hinckley buzzard]

I-4 was apparently built over fifty years ago. No surprise it will need periodic repair and upgrading to meet changing demands. That’s the way infrastructure is: leaving it as it was built is to invite obsolescence, whether highway, water and sewer system, electrical grid, pipelines, energy generation.

These are critical facilities that you cannot just build and pretend they will last forever.

[Wuli]

My observation is that some places have way more people than is good for them. Smart people should just leave, because “fixing” things in such places often merely leads to even more people moving into the area, making the next “fix” inevitable.

[morphing libertarian]

And i pay for a florida HWY I don’t live in florida.

[morphing libertarian]

been there

[bert]

FYI

The interstate Highway System was promoted by President Eisenhour to permit the movement of military troops and eaqupment expeditiously in time of war. As an American you thus benefit from the protection provided by the good roads.

I would advise you to leave where ever you are once in a while and travel across the length and breadth of America. We have a great country to visit and see

[morphing libertarian]

Arrogant idiot.