ORLANDO, Fla. — If you’ve driven through Orlando in the last couple weeks, you’ve seen all those road closures and detours.
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Thursday, Orlando listed 13 road closures and six more planned on their website.
FDOT, OUC, and the City of Orlando all have projects going on simultaneously despite, they say, planning and communication between the agencies.
The projects include the continued FDOT work on Orange Avenue.
The city is replacing sewer lines and old brick on Harwood and fixing the drainage issues on highland avenue.
Then, there’s the project on Robinson Avenue that’s wrapping up while there’s months left on the large Delaney Avenue improvement project.
Now, the city plans to undertake the massive Summerlin Avenue project beginning Monday.
It will stretch from Marks Street to South Street. It’s estimated to last upwards of three years to complete.
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Corey night, the city’s public works director, says the project is to avoid any further emergency repairs on Summerlin.
In October 2018, a disastrous water main break sent thousands of gallons of water gushing into the streets, flooding out cars.
The city says underneath this street is cast iron pipe from 1938!
“It is a once in a hundred-year job,” Knight said. “We’re going to replace their cast iron water main there. We’re going to rehabilitate and replace some of our sanitary sewer lines along there. We’re also going to upgrade some of the storm lines.”
Knight says they also plan to repair the brick on the downtown street.
Though the city says the project is necessary, business owners are concerned about the impacts.
“It’s crazy because even when Robinson was shut down was a little hassle and now Summerlin. So it’s like, hey, what’s next? You know?,” said Angel Ortiz, owner of Clean & Classy Barbershop in Thornton Park.
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Ortiz says he already hears all about the traffic problems from his clients.
“You know, they live in an area, pay a lot of money for these condos and stuff and then can’t even, you know, drive a commute how they need to, you know. So, it’s been a little crazy,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz says it’s going to be difficult for his clients to commute to his business and find parking.
“We’re hoping that is not too bad, you know, but I’m sure it’ll affect some things,” Ortiz said.
Knight says they are ensuring the Summerlin Avenue Project and others are as efficient as possible, knocking out multiple upgrades at once so there won’t be as many future closures. They’re also completing the project in phases.
“I would strongly, strongly hope that the neighborhood that people here in Orlando support these small businesses. We don’t want anybody to have any adverse effect of anything that we do here. In fact, we do this so we can make sure that they don’t have problems in the future,” Knight said.
Summerlin Avenue road construction begins January 13.
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