Poinciana Parkway
Current Status
Beginning as soon as February 2021 the Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) will be widening SR 538/Poinciana Parkway from Ronald Reagan Parkway to County Road 580/Cypress Parkway.
This 7-mile project will be adding two lanes (one in each direction) to create a divided four-lane expressway as well as building four sound walls along the project corridor. CFX is also re-aligning the intersection with CR 580/Cypress Parkway at Solivita Boulevard, building a second bridge over the Reedy Creek Mitigation Bank, new bridges at Marigold Avenue and KOA street, and adding two new ramps at the existing interchange with Marigold Avenue.
While the Central Florida Expressway Authority takes steps to minimize the impact of construction to the surrounding community, residents can expect some level of noise throughout the course of this work. The following activity should be expected:
- Nighttime construction work as needed.
- Intermittent lane and ramp closures.
- Intermittent daytime pile driving operations.
For more information, please contact Kevin Camara by phone at 407-383-5817 or by email at Construction@CFXway.com. You may also visit the project web page at https://bit.ly/SR538Widening.
Plans for the Poinciana Parkway Expansion call for the engineering and design work to begin in 2020 and for construction to begin in 2022 with projected completion to take place in 2023
The CFX Board has also approved the Poinciana Parkway Extension project (formerly called I4 Connector, to allow the Poinciana Parkway to be extended to Osceola CR532 with additional improvements to allow better acces to I4
A new study has been started by Florida Turnpike Enterprise to allow eventually the Poinciana Parkway to be extended to I4 at the 429 Interchange
History
The Poinciana Parkway was a project that had long been promised to the buyers of homes in Poinciana that never seemed to be making progress until the public demanded it from Poinciana's elected officials. The road was conceived when the plans for Poinciana were originally developed. Land was allocated to connect the northern end of Marigold Avenue in Poinciana across the Reedy Creek Swamp connecting to US 17/92. In fact Polk County had originally expanded Ronald Reagan CR54 to link up with the Poinciana Parkway.
The original plans called for the Poinciana developer Avatar to build the project as a private toll road. Original estimates called for the project to cost about $50M.
Where the project ran into trouble was when the Army Corps of Engineers insisted that a road crossing the ReedyCreek Swamp would not be acceptable to the environment but that instead a bridge needed to be constructed allowing preservation of wildlife crossings and water flow through the swamp. By adding the cost of the bridge to the project the projected costs jumped to $150M well beyond the financial capability of the developer Avatar to finance as a private project.
As a result the project languished for years. Promises were made but they were never delivered.
Finally public pressure became so great that Poinciana's elected officials were forced to take action.
This route shows the original plan for Poinciana Parkway showing the connection between the north end of Marigold Avenue and 17/92. The problem with this plan was that it would place an unreasonable amount of additional rush hour traffic on Marigold Avenue through residential neighborhoods and school zones.
To relieve the additional traffic problem on Marigold Avenue the solution was to add an additional leg for Poinciana Parkway connecting the interchange at Marigold Avenue Directly to Cypress Parkway in front of Solivita with an additional interchange at KOA Ave.
