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Interstate, a DTI company dtidental.com | of South Bend :: Getting Here :: Interstate Info ci.south-bend.in.us |
Interstate 4 (I-4) is a 132.30-mile (212.91 km) intrastate Highway located entirely within the state of Florida, United States. It goes from Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida (27°57′54″N 82°27′11″W / 27.965°N 82.453°W) to Interstate 95 at Daytona Beach, Florida (29°09′18″N 81°04′34″W / 29.155°N 81.076°W). It also has the Florida Department of Transportation designation of State Road 400, but only a small portion of the route is signed at the east end. I-4 is currently the lowest-numbered Interstate Highway in the contiguous 48 U.S. states. The combination of the Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, and Daytona Beach metropolitan areas is often referred to as the I-4 Corridor, since the freeway connects all four.
[edit] Route descriptionI-4 maintains a diagonal, northeast-southwest route for much of its length. Throughout most of Orange County and Seminole County, I-4 travels in a roughly north-south direction. I-4 covers 132 miles (212 km) in Florida. The route begins with an interchange with I-275 (aka Malfunction Junction) in the Tampa, St. Petersburg area and continues east toward I-75. At this point, the interstate starts a turn toward the northeast where it intersects with the Orlando area cutting the city through at a diagonal direction going northeast/southwest. The route provides access to all of Orlando's theme parks including Disney World and Universal Studios. Right before the eastern terminus, I-4 switches to a mostly east/west route in order to connect with traffic from and to I-95. There is also a huge 30'x50' Confederate Flag standing on top of a 140-foot (43 m) flagpole located at the crossing of I-4 and I-75 in Hillsborough County. Even though pressures have been on to remove the flag, Hillsborough County and the state of Florida have no legal right to remove the flag because it is owned by a private organization and flown over private land. At an interchange with I-95 in Daytona Beach, I-4 terminates; however, SR 400 continues eastward into Daytona Beach [edit] Daytona BeachSR 400, unsigned while concurrent with I-4, becomes signed east of I-95. The road extends for three miles (5 km) from the northeast terminus of I-4, on the south side of Daytona International Speedway and Daytona Beach International Airport, to an intersection with U.S. Route 1 (SR 5) in Daytona Beach. Named Beville Road, it runs along the boundary between the cities of Daytona Beach and South Daytona. [edit] History
I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways to be constructed in Florida. The first section opened between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. By early 1960, the Howard Frankland Bridge was opened to traffic, as well as the segment from the Hillsborough Avenue/ US 301 junction in Tampa to Plant City. The stretch from Lake Monroe to Lake Helen, including the original St. Johns River Bridge also opened during that period. The segment from Lakeland to Orlando was complete by 1962. By the mid 1960s, several segments were already complete, including Malfunction Junction in Tampa and parts of I-4 through Orlando. The original western terminus was set in South Pasadena in the late 1960s, but this plan was rejected due to local opposition. As a result, I-4 only went as far southwest as 9th St N in St. Petersburg. The entire Interstate Highway System was completed by the late 1960s. However, the western terminus was truncated to Malfunction Junction in 1971 when I-75 was extended over the Frankland Bridge. Eventually, that stretch was again redesignated to become part of I-275. In maps and atlases dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, The Tampa/St. Petersburg section of Interstate 4/Interstate 275 was marked as the Tampa Expressway. The Orlando segment was marked as the Orlando Expressway. Both names have since faded from maps. Although many post-1970 interchanges along I-4 were constructed before the recent widening projects, they were designed with I-4 expansion in mind. In other words, there is enough room available to widen I-4 to up to ten lanes without extensively modifying the interchanges. Some of these interchanges include the Interstate 75 stack (constructed in the 1980s) and several interchanges serving the Walt Disney World Resort (constructed in the late 1980s/early 1990s). In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the I-4 corridor, a site of significant growth, was a focus of political activity within the swing state of Florida. Communities along the I-4 corridor were perceived by both major political parties as having higher proportions of undecided voters as compared to more Republican- or Democratic-leaning portions of the state. It played an equally key role in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, but whereas the corridor had voted heavily for Bush in 2004, which helped Bush win the state, in 2008 it swung behind Democratic candidate Obama, helping Obama win Florida.[2] A section of I-4 called the 'dead zone' is rumored to be haunted.[3] [edit] Tampa areaThe interchange with what is today Interstate 75 was constructed in the early 1980s. In Tampa, the exit to 40th Street (State Road 569) has been closed since late 2005 due to the ongoing reconstruction of I-4; it will not reopen due to a proposed connector highway with the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.[4] The I-4/I-275 interchange (Malfunction Junction) was rebuilt from 2002 to 2006, and I-4 is under staged renovations to be widened from four to six lanes (with eight lanes in certain segments). Much of this work is complete, and all new travel lanes are now open. Eventually, I-4 will be widened again to a total of at least ten lanes (five in each direction). Studies for this project are already underway and construction should commence sometime in the 2010s. Completion of the project should be around 2020.  Eastbound I-4 shifted to its new, permanent alignment between Malfunction Junction and 50th St on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 at 5:30 am. The new alignment includes a right-lane ramp exit/entry at the 22nd St/21st St Interchange (The previous left-lane configuration was causing hazardous conditions to commuters since its opening in 2005). On Friday, August 11, 2006, a fourth lane opened on eastbound I-4 between the downtown junction and 50th St (led in by a newly opened third lane on the eastbound I-4 ramp from northbound I-275). And on Friday, August 18, the new westbound alignment, just west of 50th Street, opened. The newly opened lanes will improve flow throughout the interchange. The 50th St overpass however, will not be complete until late 2007.[5][6][7][8] Also, the eastbound I-4 exit ramp to Columbus Drive/50th Street is situated to the left-hand side of the highway (as opposed to its former right-hand side exit). This exit shift went into effect in spring 2006 and is part of the new, permanent interstate configuration. [edit] Orlando areaAs Orlando grew in the 1970s and 1980s, traffic became a growing concern, especially after the construction of the original interchange with the East-West Expressway in 1973, which proved to become a principal bottleneck. The term "highway hostages" was coined in the 1980s to describe people stuck in long commutes to and from Orlando on I-4. In the early/mid 1990s, several interchanges near Kissimmee were constructed/upgraded to accommodate increasing traffic going to and from Walt Disney World. However, I-4's main lanes were not widened in the process. Around the same time, the Southern Connector was extended to I-4. The St. Johns River Veterans Memorial Bridge, a two-span six-lane replacement to the original four-lane bridge over the St. Johns River northeast of Orlando, was completed in 2004. Tolled express lanes were being planned in the Orlando area as a traffic congestion relief technique for rush hour commuters. The name for them was to be Xpress 400, numbered after the state road designation for I-4, SR 400. However, due to U.S. Representative John Mica, they have been banned by a recently passed rider in the SAFETEA-LU Federal transportation bill in 2005. The eastbound exit to Robinson Street (State Road 526) permanently closed at 11PM on April 25, 2006, to make way for construction of the new eastbound onramp from State Road 408.[9] The westbound offramp to Gore Street was permanently closed in the same project on 2008-02-11. The new overpass from I-4 west to John Young Parkway (County Road 423) opened the morning of April 27, 2006.[10][11][12] [edit] Halifax River BridgeThere have been a number of proposals for a bridge that would carry SR 400 (Beville Road) across the Halifax River to Daytona Beach Shores. Proponents say that this would improve traffic flow and assist in hurricane evacuations, while opponents claim that a bridge would lead to congestion and environmental damage.[citation needed] Somewhat of a hot topic in the local area in the 1990s, the bridge proposal currently appears to be dormant.[citation needed] [edit] 2008 PileupOn January 9, 2008, 70 vehicles were involved in a large pileup on I-4 near Polk City. The pileup was caused by an unexpected thick morning fog that was mixed with a scheduled—and approved—environmental burn by the Florida Wildlife Commission. The fog drifted across I-4, mixing with the smoke, reducing visibility to near-zero conditions. Four people were killed, and 38 were injured. The section of I-4 did not re-open until 6:30pm the next day, January 10.[13] [edit] FutureInterim improvements to the interchange at State Road 408 were completed at the end of 2008.[14] The rest of the SR 408 improvements are scheduled for the next decade. Intersections at US 192[15] and I-275[16] were completed in 2007. Interstate 4 is currently also being widened in Volusia County from SR 472 to SR 44, with the intersection at SR 44 being rebuilt[17]. The remaining four-lane segment, from SR 44 to I-95, will eventually be widened to six lanes, with construction anticipated to begin in 2012.[18] Planning is underway for "ultimate" improvements to Interstate 4 through Orlando.[19] These plans involve adding express lanes to the highway, and the reconstruction of several major interchanges. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2014. Right-of-way procurement alone will top $400 million.[20] [edit] Exit list
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Interstate 4 travel guide from Wikitravel
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