Although most of the work is finished, the road work surrounding the to-be-built Apopka City Center at the interchange of U.S. Highway 441 and State Road 436, will officially be completed in about a month.
Pam Richmond, the city of Apopka’s transportation coordinator, said the $3.7-million project should be finished before the January 28 completion date stated in the contract, including all the traffic lights and the fountain and roundabout that are on McGee Avenue between U.S. 441 and Sixth Street.
The contractor for the project is Apopka-based Southland Construction, while Carter Electric, also an Apopka company, was the electrical subcontractor. Freeport Fountains out of Sanford is the subcontractor for the fountain. That company also built the splashpad at Kit Land Nelson Park.
The Florida Department of Transportation (DOT) had to approve all the plans as U.S. 441 and SR 436 are controlled by the state.
The biggest change for the average driver is the way U.S. 441 and SR 436 merge.
For many years, two lanes of traffic from U.S. 441 merged into one at the same place where three lanes of traffic from SR 436 also merged, meaning five lanes of traffic were merging into two lanes as the highways began narrowing after passing Sheeler Road.
Now, each highway will have two lanes of traffic moving through where the two highways merge because traffic signals will soon be operational for the two lanes from each highway. When the traffic signals are green for SR 436, they will be red for U.S. 441 and vice versa.
Because the new traffic signals on U.S. 441 at the merge area are hidden due to an overpass, there will be beacons flashing red, yellow, or green on either side of the highway as drivers approach the overpass and merge area, Richmond said.
To help local drivers get used to the new way of getting through that merge area, there will be signs posted.
The new traffic patterns should cut down on crashes, she said.
The project was supposed to be completed by this week, she said, but the mast arms for the new traffic signals that were ordered in March were late coming in, delaying completion of the overall project by about a month.
Richmond said the new traffic signals will begin flashing on Friday, January 3, and will become operational a week later.
The fountain on McGee Avenue should be completed by the second week of January. It will spray water up to about 12 feet, she said. The roundabout will provide an entrance to the Hilton Garden Inn that is under construction and is expected to be completed some time in the first half of 2020.
The complete story appears on page 1A of the Friday, December 27, issue of The Apopka Chief. Subscribe today!Â
