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The I–4 Ultimate Improvement Project: Changes, Challenges, and Outcomes
All Photos Courtesy of HDR
By Lindsey Ranayhossaini, Staff Writer
When Florida’s Interstate 4 was built through Orlando in the 1960s, it was designed to handle 70,000 cars per day. The interstate, covering 8.2 miles, converted a 40-minute trip to just 10 minutes.
But when Walt Disney World opened its doors in 1971, Orlando became Florida’s fastest-growing city. Sea World followed in 1973, and by the time Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990, Orlando had already become known as the “Theme Park Capital of the World.” With the explosion in tourism, I-4 was not capable of handling the volume of traffic moving through the city.
“Through the years, traffic kept growing,” said Steven Waterston, I-4 design manager for HDR. “Orlando kept growing. Disney came and then I-4 just got over capacity. The number of lanes and the way the interstate operated with the ramps couldn’t handle that increase in traffic.”
According to U.S. Census data, the Orlando metropolitan area’s population grew from 700,055 in 1980 to 2,673,376 in 2020. And though I-4 had been modified and expanded through a variety of transportation projects over the years, a much more significant solution was needed to adequately manage traffic flow.
In April 2014, the State of Florida awarded its largest-ever transportation project, the I-4 Ultimate Improvement Project, to provide a long-term solution to I-4’s traffic woes. The $2.87 billion project involved the reconstruction of 21 miles of interstate through the heart of Orlando, and engineering firms HDR and Jacobs were selected for the design joint venture.
Changes
To improve I-4’s traffic flow, the design joint venture project team reconstructed 15 major interchanges, widened 13 bridges, replaced 74 bridges and added 53 bridges.
The new I-4 Ultimate boasts innovative design features, including intelligent service transportation systems that provide real-time traffic data and utilize signs along the corridor to inform drivers about what to expect moving ahead.
The highway median includes two toll-based express lanes separated from general-use lanes by a concrete barrier, the first of their kind in Florida.
“A lot of projects have express lanes, but they've just got little tubular delineators that separate the general lanes from the express lanes, and those are a maintenance issue,” Waterston said. “People run over them all the time. So here we've got a physical barrier that separates that out, and I really think it gives you a nice feel for the express lane.”
Emergency access gates on the express lanes act as a release valve to allow drivers to exit the express lanes and re-enter the general-use lanes in the event of a breakdown or accident.
In Winter Park, where a tight series of vertical and horizontal curves led to a high number of crashes, the team was able to flatten the curves to increase sight distance for drivers.
Additional notable design features that assist with traffic flow include an auxiliary lane from John Young Parkway to Conroy Road and a pedestrian bridge at Kirkman Road that connects Universal Studios Resort to nearby hotels.
“That was not in the [original] plans,” Waterston said. “And that really helps make Kirkman, a major intersection, operate better. Now people staying at the hotels who want to walk to Universal can use the pedestrian bridge to get over and not have to go through the signal, which is like a minute cycle to walk across that roadway.”
Challenges
The I-4 Ultimate was built in a condensed, seven-year time frame beginning in 2015 and ending in 2022. Throughout the construction process, I-4 remained open.
“Trying to maintain traffic is always kind of complicated,” Waterston said.
To manage the design and construction process, I-4 was divided into four segments with a designated team for each segment. More than 600 designers produced more than 500 packages for construction. The size of the project, coupled with the compressed schedule, created a constant grind for designers drafting the plans for each segment.
“We'd have a submittal, and then you'd have to immediately jump on another submittal of a package,” Waterston said. “[There was] kind of that constant – work on a set of plans, get it done, work on another set of plans. Sometimes they would overlap because something would slip a little bit.”
Waterston said that staffing issues created additional complications, as it was difficult to maintain enough designers and construction team members for such a large project. The primary construction joint venture, consisting of civic construction contractors Skansa, Granite and Lane, logged a total of 21 million person hours.
The sheer size of the team made project management difficult.
All projects require internal and external coordination, but the size and scope of this project increased the coordination effort by tenfold,” -Bryan Chevalier, I-4 project manager for Jacobs
“Multiple offices from different states and hundreds of staff members were involved in the design."
Working with this amount of staff spread throughout different states also required increased quality control procedures to maintain consistency on final deliverables within the tight schedule.
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, staffing issues continued as construction teams adjusted to accommodate social distancing requirements.
“[The construction team] had to rethink how they do the work and how to keep people separated on the construction site,” Waterston said.
But Waterston added that because of the lower volumes on the highway during this period, FDOT allowed construction teams to close portions of I-4 to accelerate some of the workflow and complete unique maintenance of traffic situations.
Outcomes
The I-4 Ultimate project was awarded an Envision Platinum rating for its use of sustainable design principles. It is Florida’s first Envision Platinum-rated project and the first major interstate program to receive this rating.
Outcomes
The I-4 Ultimate project was awarded an Envision Platinum rating for its use of sustainable design principles. It is Florida’s first Envision Platinum-rated project and the first major interstate program to receive this rating.
The Envision rating system, based out of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure, rates projects based on factors including quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, the natural world, and climate and resilience.
Knowing the commitment and dedication the design team made to deliver a quality product, and to now see it completed and the benefits it provides to the downtown Orlando area is very satisfying...
“The team was really dedicated to developing a product that had sustainable elements,” Waterston said. “I really like the idea that it was sustainable, and that we got an Envision Platinum Certification for the project.”
To earn this rating, the I-4 project team recycled 99-percent of the concrete and steel from the deconstruction effort. They operated with efficient machinery and controlled stormwater runoff during construction. Protected wildlife was relocated, and the team used a non-invasive, native plantings palette for landscaping. LED lighting was installed throughout the corridor for improved energy efficiency.
The design integrates alternative transportation such as pedestrian bridges, rail projects and bike trails, as well as aesthetic elements such as art installations, custom stone medallions, water features, enhanced pylons and other elements that honor historic places.
“Knowing the commitment and dedication the design team made to deliver a quality product, and to now see it completed and the benefits it provides to the downtown Orlando area is very satisfying,” Chevalier said.
“I can look back now and see what we were able to accomplish,” Waterston said. “A huge amount of people were involved in this project and really trying to make Orlando better. [The I-4 Ultimate] has really been a great addition to the town, and I think it's really helped to make the city and the local area so much better.”
