POINCIANA, Fla. — Critics call it the “Great Wall of Poinciana,” but the Central Florida Expressway Authority hopes the Southport Connector Expressway will alleviate the traffic nightmare in southern Osceola County.

What You Need To Know

  • Poinciana workers have some of the worst commute times in the state

  • The Central Florida Expressway Authority wants to build the Southport Connector Expressway to connect Poinciana Pkwy to Florida’s Turnpike

  • Plan calls for expressway to be built down the middle of Cypress Pkwy

  • Critics say the road will create a wall, dividing the Poinciana community

“If I were still working, as much as I love this little town and I love where I live, I would probably move,” said Stan Maminski, a retiree living in the Solivita senior community in Poinciana.

Poinciana is known for clogged roads and one of the worst commutes for workers in the state.

The Central Florida Expressway Authority thinks it has a solution to some of the traffic woes. The toll road agency is proposing the Southport Connector Expressway to help create a beltway, connecting the existing Poinciana Parkway with Florida’s Turnpike.

“I’m all for the outer beltway, I just believe it could be done without this three-mile section that would totally destroy the town of Poinciana,” Maminski said.

To create the beltway, the Central Florida Expressway Authority wants to build the toll road down the middle of Cypress Parkway, which Maminski calls the “Great Wall of Poinciana.”

“What they’re talking about doing is ripping all of this up and putting a 120-foot wide, 30-foot high expressway,” he said.

Building the elevated expressway in the median of Cypress Parkway, Poinciana’s main street, Maminski argues, will divide the community. On top of that, the limited expressway, he says, won’t help local drivers and won’t help congestion.

“They will destroy the business district once they start construction of the highway,” said Maminski.

Brian Hutchings, manager of communications for Central Florida Expressway Authority, disagrees.

He says the proposed 15-mile-long expressway would eventually provide a direct route between Interstate 4 and the turnpike in Osceola County.

“With this connector, you’re going to get that regional traffic that stays on the expressway and the folks that live and work in the area that want to do those local trips, (they) will be able to make those easily without the congestion they currently experience,” Hutchings said.

Hutchings says the Central Florida Expressway Authority has heard the complaints about the “Wall of Poinciana”, so it is willing to change the look of the toll road in some spots.

“We’re looking at an elevated bridge structure really to give a kind of parkway-feel elevated, so people can see beneath the expressway,” Hutchings said. “And that I think will help a lot as far as keeping that community feel.”

Maminski and other neighbors in Poinciana have offered a different route for the beltway, one that would not cut down the middle of Cypress Parkway. They call themselves the Southport Connector Alternatives Routes, or SCAR.

Hutchings says the Central Florida Expressway Authority evaluated that alternative, but says it offers more environmental and human impacts.

“We certainly need for some method to get people around, the only thing we’re asking is don’t destroy the town of Poinciana while you’re doing it,” Maminski said.

One of Maminski’s fellow SCAR members filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Transportation, complaining the proposed route would divide and disrupt Poinciana, which is primarily made up of seniors and minorities.

The Central Florida Expressway Authority is waiting to hear back from the Federal Highway Administration before moving to the next steps in the project.