Construction set to begin Monday on John Young Parkway in Osceola County has been delayed until November.
Residents near the affected area of John Young Parkway, from Portage Street and Vineland Road, said they are both excited about the finished project and concerned it will increase an already lengthy commute.
“It gets really bad here especially on weekdays,” local Kissimmee Resident Osvaldo Perez told us. “Lots of people travel back and forth to work in Orlando.”
According to the Florida Department of transportation about 36,000 people like Perez, travel on John Young parkway every day.
Right now it’s the main road in and out of Poinciana.
With that many people on the road, it causes major traffic problems, accidents are frequent. The Kissimmee Police Department has even begun cracking down on the traffic situation by ticketing people who illegally block the intersections while sitting in traffic on that particular section of road.
Now, the Florida Department of Transportation decided something more permanent was needed to fix the problems.
“We have evening back up and morning back up so by adding an extra lane both northbound and southbound we will be able to alleviate a lot of that congestion," Jennifer Horton, Public Information Specialist with the Florida Department of Transportation said.
They will start turning John Young Parkway from a four lane to a six lane road in November.
The plan is to expand the road, and as they do that, they’ll be working on improving safety conditions by installing safer walkways and upgrading the drainage systems.
Locals told us they are looking forward to the end result, but are concerned it may cause even more traffic hazards in the meantime.
“We are sensitive for that area. We understand there is already traffic backups in that area and we are going to try to minimize our impact as much as possible by keeping two lanes open as much as possible,” Horton explained.
Horton told us they plan on conducting the bulk of the construction between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. The project is expected to wrap up in early 2018.
The Florida Department of Transportation will also begin work on another heavily trafficked area in St. Cloud. They will widen the section of U.S. 192 from Eastern Avenue to Nova Road.
This stretch of highway will also expand from 4 to six lanes, and is expected to be completed by fall of 2017. During the construction, FDOT has announced they will also work on improving drainage, and create side-walks and bike lanes.