Mica's Word

The I-4 Ultimate project, currently underway, will reconstruct 21 miles of interstate highway in Orlando’s metro corridor.  Through a federal transportation measure that I helped author, all free lanes will continue to be free, both in Central Florida and throughout the United States.  To provide financing for the additional lanes, we allowed new capacity construction to be paid for with tolling as long as those funds remain with the project and pay down bonds for construction on unused right of way or inside medians.

With the current I-4 project underway and scheduled for completion in 2021, my efforts have turned to the next five phases that I call "Beyond the Ultimate.”  With four more lanes of traffic coming to I-4 at Kirkman Road, it is important to advance the next two expansion phases of Highways 528 and 192 as soon as possible.  Working with local, State and federal officials, I am doing everything possible to move these next sections of the I-4 project forward.  

Since I began my service in Congress, federal gas taxes returned from the Highway Trust Fund to Florida have increased from 72 cents to 95 cents for every dollar sent to Washington.

With Central Florida's Airports serving as significant job and economic generators, their expansion is vital to our Region’s future.  A top aviation infrastructure project for me was to secure FAA approval of the Orlando Airport’s development plan, which was opposed by most existing Airlines.  In spite of their understandable attempts to impede its completion, I was successful in helping to secure the approval of $1.4 billion for the airport’s development plan. 

Significant construction is already underway to link the existing terminal with an intermodal transportation center to the south.  That facility will contain car rentals, parking and various concessions and be the connecting hub for SunRail, high speed rail, future fixed transit lines to the community and tourist areas and serve as the gateway for a new terminal.  

The intermodal center and new passenger terminal will be paid for by passenger and user fees from parking and concessions, not local taxpayers.  The current terminal was built to accommodate 24 million passengers yearly and will soon serve 40 million travelers.

The Orlando Sanford International Airport is also experiencing significant growth and plans a terminal expansion to serve its record-breaking passenger count.  I recently joined Allegiant Airline executives and community leaders at Sanford Airport as we broke ground for that airline’s new Eastern U.S. Training Facility which will add to the thousands of jobs already at the growing airport.  When I first began assisting the Sanford airport there were no scheduled commercial passenger flights, but today the airport’s passenger count exceeds two million annually.

In the recent federal transportation bill, I worked to include a new section in the law entitled "Innovation".  While we spend billions of Highway Gas Tax Trust Funds on asphalt and concrete, we can get substantial bang for our buck by using available technology to better move and manage traffic. This is why I included provisions in that law that send some of the federal transportation funds back to the states, specifically for deploying cost-effective intelligent transportation systems over the next five years.  

With that legislation in place, my next challenge was to convince key Florida leaders in multiple jurisdictions to participate in our region.  After significant effort, we enlisted 27 Central Florida governments to participate.  MetroPlan Orlando and the State Department of Transportation have since selected seven high traffic corridors to deploy new IT devices to expedite traffic flows.  The technology used will pick up electronic pings from e-passes and cell phones and calculate, in real time, vehicle speed and volume, while adjusting traffic lights.  Anyone who has sat at a red light with no traffic in any direction can appreciate this cost-effective system to improve congested roadways.  

A Central Florida grant application for funds, I helped set aside, is now pending. There are seven initial corridors selected for implementation, including Hwy 436, Hwy 50 and Hwy 17-92, as well as seven more corridors scheduled for partial implementation.  The first revamped corridors should be operational in less than three years.  Imagine traveling from Orlando Airport to Apopka or from Ocoee to Bithlo and rarely hitting a red light!