ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Construction is underway on extending Kirkman Road down to Universal Orlando’s new Epic Universe theme park.

Orange County is working with Universal Orlando to construct 1.7 miles of road from Carrier Drive through Sand Lake Road and down to Universal Boulevard, near the Orange County Convention Center.

The road will have a unique feature to welcome visitors to the new theme park.

“One of the main features of the project is an elevated traffic circle. That’s going to be used to facilitate traffic distribution to the Universal property,” said Ken Leeming, Orange County highway construction manager.

Leeming said the road is expected to be finished in late 2024, well before the new theme park is set to open in the summer of 2025.

“(The road project) is also fully multimodal, the first one in Orange County,” said Leeming. “It provides bicycle/pedestrian facilities, it provides three travel lanes in each direction for general use and it also provides dedicated bus lanes, which will assist in distributing traffic to the Universal park.”

The road project sparked controversy when it went before the Orange County Commission for approval in 2019 for the county’s contribution to the plan.

Orange County is pitching in $125 million for the extension, a state grant is offering $16 million and Universal will pay the rest, some $160 million.

Leeming said the plan to extend Kirkman Road started in 2000, but it wasn’t until Universal announced a new theme park that the county was able to find a partner and move forward with the project.

Rachel Wahlrab operates a bakery out of her apartment overlooking Epic Universe construction.

“It’s going to be a freshly paved road, which I know will be good for my cake deliveries, rather than a bumpy road,” she said.

The county hopes the new road alleviates some of the pressure on International Drive, providing another north-south route in the attractions area.