ScottNBecky
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Messages
- 814
Just wondering if it is open yet? If so how much quicker is it by-passing I-4.
Thanks in advance, Scott
Thanks in advance, Scott
Has anyone used the new "Western Way" yet?
- Thread starter ScottNBecky
- Start date
peter11435
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2004
- Messages
- 1,601
pippy27 said:
{arts of 429 are now open. This Friday it will be open all the way from I-4 to US 192. However Disney's new road Western Way is still a few months away.
State Road 429 (Western Beltway). Expect lane closings at night on U.S. 192 as crews lift bridge girders into place. The beltway between Seidel Road and U.S. 192 will open Friday. Expect delays near U.S. 192 at Orange Lake Boulevard, U.S. 192 at Avalon Road and on Sand Hill Road near Old Lake Wilson Road. Projected completion: December 2006.
Western Beltway pushes 5 1/2 miles farther south
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 16, 2005
As a pickup crested the highest bridge on the new Western Beltway segment that opens today, passengers admired the vista stretching to the western horizon: orange groves, forest, pasture, an undeveloped lake, a country road.
"This is always a beautiful scene here with that valley," said a highway engineer helping build the beltway.
"For a while," added his colleague.
When the final leg of the beltway is completed in about a year, creating an expressway bypass around Orlando, such rural vistas along the beltway will begin to be transformed into subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks.
The first change comes today with the opening of the 5 1/2-mile segment from Winter Garden-Vineland Road to a new interchange at New Independence Parkway, formerly called McKinney Road.
Cars will be charged $1 on that stretch.
Next Friday another leg will open, pushing the road southward an additional nine miles to U.S. Highway 192. It will have its own toll plaza, charging another $1.
In the early spring, a new interchange north of U.S. 192 will open to link with Western Way, a road being built into Walt Disney World, creating a western resort entrance.
And in about a year, the Western Beltway will go the final 51/2 miles south to link with Interstate 4.
Many subdivisions and businesses are already being built or planned along the beltway.
The Horizon West community, just now starting development, will offer homes for 30,000 people, offices and shopping during the next couple of decades, on 23,000 acres. A couple miles to the north, other developers plan a 1.15 million-square-foot Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves shopping center.
The road should appeal to people coming from the already-booming areas around Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Winter Garden, Ocoee and farther west to The Villages, who want to avoid I-4, said Mike Snyder, executive director of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, which is building half the road. It also will pick up a share of Disney traffic once Western Way opens.
"That's the beauty of it; they don't have to get on I-4," Snyder said. "When this is all the way connected down to I-4, that's when you're going to really start seeing your benefits."
Snyder insisted the expressway is not spurring most of the coming development. Much of it, including Horizon West, was already in the works before the road was approved. The houses, shopping centers, office parks and people are coming regardless of whether the roads get built, he said.
"This road is necessary to that region," Snyder said.
Not everyone is happy, however.
The beltway has shown up in area plans since 1970. But it wasn't until 1998 that a deal to build it was struck, brokered by state Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden.
The Expressway Authority agreed to build the northern 11 miles, between Colonial Drive and Seidel Road, for $230 million. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise agreed to build the southern 11 miles, between Seidel and I-4, for $326 million. Disney donated 200 acres and $7.5 million.
At the time, then-Expressway Authority board member Bill Beckett objected, saying there was not enough traffic to justify the road, and he thought its main purposes initially would be to serve Disney and Horizon West.
Beckett, a law partner in the firm Lowndes Drostick Doster Kantor & Reed, said Thursday that the road is a good idea in the long run, but he still thinks a better deal was warranted.
"I think ultimately to have a beltway around Orlando, that is important," Beckett said. "Was it necessary in '98, and is it necessary now? Only for certain parties."
The Expressway Authority projects very light traffic at first, perhaps 5,600 to 9,400 vehicles a day -- about the amount of traffic on Avalon Road last year.
But Expressway Authority spokesman Bryan Douglas said that number is conservative and does not account for traffic to and from Disney once Western Way opens. By 2025, that section of the Western Beltway might carry 42,800 vehicles, about what is now found on the some of the busier parts of S.R. 417.
It doesn't matter whether the road is spurring development or vice versa, Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said.
"At this point we've got a chicken and we've got an egg. At this point, it [a chicken-or-egg debate] is irrelevant," she said. "Horizon West got its plans approved, and the roads out there are failing, and we need 429."
Western Beltway pushes 5 1/2 miles farther south
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 16, 2005
As a pickup crested the highest bridge on the new Western Beltway segment that opens today, passengers admired the vista stretching to the western horizon: orange groves, forest, pasture, an undeveloped lake, a country road.
"This is always a beautiful scene here with that valley," said a highway engineer helping build the beltway.
"For a while," added his colleague.
When the final leg of the beltway is completed in about a year, creating an expressway bypass around Orlando, such rural vistas along the beltway will begin to be transformed into subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks.
The first change comes today with the opening of the 5 1/2-mile segment from Winter Garden-Vineland Road to a new interchange at New Independence Parkway, formerly called McKinney Road.
Cars will be charged $1 on that stretch.
Next Friday another leg will open, pushing the road southward an additional nine miles to U.S. Highway 192. It will have its own toll plaza, charging another $1.
In the early spring, a new interchange north of U.S. 192 will open to link with Western Way, a road being built into Walt Disney World, creating a western resort entrance.
And in about a year, the Western Beltway will go the final 51/2 miles south to link with Interstate 4.
Many subdivisions and businesses are already being built or planned along the beltway.
The Horizon West community, just now starting development, will offer homes for 30,000 people, offices and shopping during the next couple of decades, on 23,000 acres. A couple miles to the north, other developers plan a 1.15 million-square-foot Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves shopping center.
The road should appeal to people coming from the already-booming areas around Altamonte Springs, Apopka, Winter Garden, Ocoee and farther west to The Villages, who want to avoid I-4, said Mike Snyder, executive director of the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, which is building half the road. It also will pick up a share of Disney traffic once Western Way opens.
"That's the beauty of it; they don't have to get on I-4," Snyder said. "When this is all the way connected down to I-4, that's when you're going to really start seeing your benefits."
Snyder insisted the expressway is not spurring most of the coming development. Much of it, including Horizon West, was already in the works before the road was approved. The houses, shopping centers, office parks and people are coming regardless of whether the roads get built, he said.
"This road is necessary to that region," Snyder said.
Not everyone is happy, however.
The beltway has shown up in area plans since 1970. But it wasn't until 1998 that a deal to build it was struck, brokered by state Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden.
The Expressway Authority agreed to build the northern 11 miles, between Colonial Drive and Seidel Road, for $230 million. Florida's Turnpike Enterprise agreed to build the southern 11 miles, between Seidel and I-4, for $326 million. Disney donated 200 acres and $7.5 million.
At the time, then-Expressway Authority board member Bill Beckett objected, saying there was not enough traffic to justify the road, and he thought its main purposes initially would be to serve Disney and Horizon West.
Beckett, a law partner in the firm Lowndes Drostick Doster Kantor & Reed, said Thursday that the road is a good idea in the long run, but he still thinks a better deal was warranted.
"I think ultimately to have a beltway around Orlando, that is important," Beckett said. "Was it necessary in '98, and is it necessary now? Only for certain parties."
The Expressway Authority projects very light traffic at first, perhaps 5,600 to 9,400 vehicles a day -- about the amount of traffic on Avalon Road last year.
But Expressway Authority spokesman Bryan Douglas said that number is conservative and does not account for traffic to and from Disney once Western Way opens. By 2025, that section of the Western Beltway might carry 42,800 vehicles, about what is now found on the some of the busier parts of S.R. 417.
It doesn't matter whether the road is spurring development or vice versa, Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs said.
"At this point we've got a chicken and we've got an egg. At this point, it [a chicken-or-egg debate] is irrelevant," she said. "Horizon West got its plans approved, and the roads out there are failing, and we need 429."
doubletrouble_vb
Inspired
- Joined
- May 13, 2001
- Messages
- 3,777
The connector at Hwy 192 was open on Wednesday northbound. I took it as a route up to I-75 yesterday as an experiment. The first stretch was more of a glorified single lane on-ramp. My advice would be to skip it until they've completed the work to extend it past 192 in a few weeks. That way you will have passing and breakdown lanes. At the same time virtually nobody was on it...the way the signs are written it isn't clear that this is a parkway/non I-4 route up to I-75. They just say Apopka northbound. I like to explore and knew I'd just have to turn left at some point to get to back to I-75 so I was willing to take the chance but I think most other people wouldn't want to chance it.
Right now I'm not sure it is significantly quicker than going up Hwy 27...especially once all the Disney traffic starts using it. It swings you out east to connect to Florida's Tpk then you travel northwest on that road. Sure you can travel at highway speeds on it and if the highway is clear sailing its probably faster but I think I'll just keep my ear to the ground on this one before my next trip south. Using 27 I can get my shopping done on the way into WDW and its a straighter shot...plus its a change of pace from the relentless interstate miles.
PS. Altho Disney's Western Way isn't complete its pretty easy to figure out when you are going through Disney's property. The lavender piping is a major clue. And I guess that's the other thing. There is no question I'd use Disney's route to exit the property to go home. Sans congestion that would be quickest route.
Right now I'm not sure it is significantly quicker than going up Hwy 27...especially once all the Disney traffic starts using it. It swings you out east to connect to Florida's Tpk then you travel northwest on that road. Sure you can travel at highway speeds on it and if the highway is clear sailing its probably faster but I think I'll just keep my ear to the ground on this one before my next trip south. Using 27 I can get my shopping done on the way into WDW and its a straighter shot...plus its a change of pace from the relentless interstate miles.
PS. Altho Disney's Western Way isn't complete its pretty easy to figure out when you are going through Disney's property. The lavender piping is a major clue. And I guess that's the other thing. There is no question I'd use Disney's route to exit the property to go home. Sans congestion that would be quickest route.
ducklite
<font color=teal>Take the Poly, it's fabulous!<br>
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I got on 429 at Route 50 last night and took it to 192--it was great, no traffic at all until I hit 192. I work right next to 429 (watching cars go over it right now) and it was so much more convenient to get to WDW from work on.
Anne
Anne
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