Posted on 10/30/2019 3:31:05 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I-4 Ultimate’s promise five years ago was that private financing and management would make Florida’s largest road reconstruction project better, faster and cheaper.
Today, the 21-mile and $2.3 billion rebuilding of Interstate 4 through metro Orlando is slogging through rising costs to an uncertain finish date, with crews working day and night under the pall of repeated worker fatalities.
Some of the issues:
- The fifth death of a construction worker last month that preliminary findings say would have been avoidable with a more cautious approach to bridge building that SGL Constructors made mandatory this month.
- Construction consortium I-4 Mobility Partners and builder SGL falling still further behind a 2021 deadline, with the most recent estimate adding a delay from Hurricane Dorian for a total of 271 additional days needed for construction.
- Claims for damage to vehicles and property from construction reaching almost 1,000. Nearly three-quarters have gotten no payment; a previous examination by the Orlando Sentinel found SGL often imposes an unattainable standard of proof.
- State officials remaining silent for more than a year on the status of a bill for $100 million – the equivalent of a very large road project – for additional payment from I-4 Mobility Partners.
- The scaling back this summer of a signature feature for I-4 Ultimate from an artistically soaring, curving bridge for cycling and walking over the interstate in Maitland to a straight, square tube.
“The construction process is now more than an inconvenience, it is endangering the lives of commuters, workers and visitors,” said U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, a Democrat whose district covers the interstate from Sanford to Orlando. “We cannot tolerate any more delays. FDOT should be working with the contractor to ensure the project is completed promptly and safely.”
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
PING.
A hundred mil a mile. Nice ripoff.
Wwhen my family moved to Central Florida in 1965 Interstate 4 only been open for something less than a year. It was a real pleasure.
When I left Orlando in 1977 it was awful.
When I left Florida in 2006 it was a stinking nightmare. Actually it was a nightmare a long time before 2006 I just didn’t have to deal with it much.
How did Dorian cost them 9 months?
It completely missed Florida
I-10 was widened —. NOT built from scratch — for about 3-4 years in staggered construction time about 2002 - 2005/6. This was west of downtown Houston by east of Katy.
Two contracts were let then. About 2.1 to 2.2 miles each.
150 $ million per contract in round numbers.
75 $ million per mile.
No bridges / just overpasses. On tabletop flat land.
And about 15+ years ago.
The only part of I-4 that works properly is the part through WDW, and that’s because Reedy Creek, Disneys property management company is in charge of it.
CC
PS. From an Orlando resident, The Orlando Sentinel is long time Fake News, just sayin...
Yep. They recycle this bs every few months. The project they are doing while keeping the length of the highway open is an engineering masterpiece. While occasionally inconvenienced I am thoroughly impressed.
Been driving it for 15 past years. Great road except with large roads merge into Orlando at I-4 as the lanes are not widened onto grass median. Still no where close ban from NY to DC.
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