The Roads of Walt Disney World May Get a $100M Upgrade

With most of the venom between The Mouse and Ron DeSantis buried, the roads leading to Walt Disney World may finally be fixed. The proposed cost? $100,000,000!

It’s no secret that traveling to and around the Disney parks is a pain. Some of that is due to Florida’s exploding population, but a good portion of the blame falls on the state of the roadways and bridges.

Thankfully, The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District has voted to consider approving funding for road improvements. Yes, even with Reedy Creek out of the way, there’s still red tape and bureaucracy to deal with.

If the CFTOD’s board gets in gear, we could see World Drive North expanded with an additional mile and a half of a four-lane road. This would some some issues.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the other improvements would affect overpasses and bridges. The widening of Western Way, which runs west of Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, is also on the table. This road connects WDW to SR 429.

While this is great for those traveling exclusively inside Walt Disney World, there are bigger transit issues just south of this area. I-4 has continued to be a mess for decades, and traffic is often at a dead stop just outside of the exit ramps to the parks.

The reason for the backups is a mystery. From World Drive to US Highway 27, traffic grinds to a halt from dawn into the night. While it is true that these areas are outside of CFTOD’s jurisdiction, something needs to be done.

I always dread seeing the sign for Richie Bros because I know I’m about to sit in gridlock for 30-45 minutes. Is it because of roadwork? No. An accident? Nope. It’s usually people not knowing how to merge into traffic and tourists freaking out because they can’t deal with Florida drivers. There may be no way to fix this, really.

[Source: Orlando Sentinel]