Could the Acceleration of the I-4 Expansion Project Save Celebration’s Magic?

Could the Acceleration of the I-4 Expansion Project Save Celebration’s Magic?

The new year started with great news for the residents of Celebration, FL as we learned about the acceleration of the I-4 expansion project near ChampionsGate adding two new lanes in each direction by late 2025. The fast-tracked expansion covers over seven miles potentially helping solve the growing traffic issue around the Disney and Celebration area of I-4. However, this acceleration can also potentially help with the road extension that is currently threatening Celebration’s magic, the connection of County Road 532 to Celebration Boulevard. Let’s review both projects to see how they can help each other. For the purpose of this blog, I will call them Project 1 and Project 2.


Project 1: The Connection of County Road 532 to Celebration Boulevard

Project 1 relates to the future plans to extend Celebration Boulevard starting from Island Village. The road extension would connect Celebration Boulevard to County Road 532. As a consequence, the connection could create a shortcut path from main highways like I-4, State Road 417 and US Highway 192 into Celebration. This extension would definitely bring more cars driving through our town which could potentially negatively impact our calm streets, jeopardize children safety and destroy our wildlife ending Celebration’s magic. This project is currently not funded for design or construction. Here is Osceola County’s website with more details on the project: https://one.osceola.org/celebrationboulevardextension

 

 

Project 2: The Acceleration of the I-4 Expansion to the End of 2025

In early January of 2025, Project 2 was a pleasant surprise. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announced the plans to accelerate the addition of two new I-4 congestion relief lanes in each direction, spanning over seven miles from U.S. 27 in Polk County in the ChampionsGate area to east of World Center Drive in Orange County. The new lanes will be located on the inside of the existing mainlines to provide drivers with some much-needed traffic relief. The project, originally set for completion in 10 years, has been accelerated to now be completed by late 2025. Here is Moving I-4 Forward website with more details on the project: https://movingi4forward.com/accelerated-start/

 

 

How Project 2 Can Help Project 1

The issue Project 1 brings is that the extended roadway to Celebration Boulevard is foreseen to deviate traffic as it could be used as a cut through path, a bypass from several directions into Celebration. Impatient drivers could be coming from I-4 in the ChampionsGate area into Island Village but also from State Road 417 and US Highway 192 to cut through Celebration to get to the other side of I-4 through Celebration Avenue and into Celebration Boulevard, this would impact the entire Celebration community including the downtown area. Not to mention the impact on exit 62 on I-4. Island Village Elementary, Celebration High School, our children's playgrounds, and our protected Wetlands would be placed in harm's way on Celebration Boulevard by an estimated 30,000 plus cars per day.

Project 2 could potentially help with this threat to Celebration because let’s say that Project 1 does go into design and construction in its current path, the acceleration of the addition of the two new I-4 congestion relief lanes in each direction which will span over seven miles from the ChampionsGate area to east of World Center Drive would give drivers a traffic relief option for the Celebration and Disney area of I-4 before Project 1 is even started, hopefully making the use of the Celebration Boulevard extension into Island Village pointless for drivers. This could be a game changer and it could help save Celebration Boulevard and Celebration Avenue from becoming another North Old Lake Wilson Road saving our beloved town and preserving its magic.

 


What are your thoughts on these two projects? Do you agree that the acceleration of the I-4 expansion project could help with the connection project from County Road 532 into Celebration Boulevard? Only time will tell how all these scenarios will take place. However, to be on the safe side in case delays happen with the I-4 expansion project, if you feel the road extension from County Road 532 into Celebration Boulevard could potentially impact Celebration in a negative way, make sure you take action while there is still time by signing this petition today: https://chng.it/FBPyjNFTTZ

 

 

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