Recently, the Central Florida Expressway Authority’s (CFX) $118 million SR 528/SR 436 Interchange Reconfiguration project, a signature interchange at the north entrance of the Orlando International Airport (OIA), was awarded the 2022 Florida Transportation Builders Association (FTBA) Best in Construction Award in the Expressway Authority category. DRMP served as the lead design firm and engineer-of-record for this project and is honored to be included in this award.

We were selected by CFX in 2018 to design the reconfiguration of this interchange. I served on the DRMP team as the Project Manager and our design included:

• Widening of SR 528 from four to six lanes with an auxiliary lane eastbound to Goldenrod Road and westbound to Conway Road
• Construction of seven new bridges using a mix of steel box girders and concrete Florida U-Beams
• Replacement of one box culvert
• Enhanced aesthetics to compliment the CFX roadways, including a planted median separated by barrier wall, planter walls adjacent to the ends of the bridges, pylons at the bridge abutments, and many areas that allow for future landscaping

Successful Coordination Between the CFX Team and Key Stakeholders

One unique aspect of this project was the coordination between the CFX Team, which included the below firms, and the numerous stakeholders that had an interest in the execution and success of this project:

• Owner: CFX
• Contractor: SEMA Construction
• Lead Designer/Engineer of Record: DRMP
• CEI: RK&K
• General Engineering Consultant: Dewberry

Two of the most significant stakeholders we coordinated with heavily from the beginning of design through the end of construction were the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA), the operator of OIA, and Brightline, the new privately funded inter-city passenger rail company.

GOAA: This interchange serves as the primary entrance to OIA, with 75 percent of the 50,000 vehicles traveling the interchange daily. Additionally, OIA is set to open their new South Terminal Complex, known as Terminal C, in September 2022, making the completion of this project and the additional capacity it provides of utmost importance. Throughout design, we coordinated with GOAA, to ensure our signing and pavement markings, aesthetics, and temporary traffic control plans provided the “Orlando Experience™” for OIA travelers.

Brightline: Brightline is constructing the West Palm Beach-to-Orlando route of its new inter-city rail system, which will connect rail passengers to OIA. Their new rail line ran adjacent to this interchange in the southeast quadrant. Because of this, we worked closely with their project team to accommodate all of the different construction scheduling and execution scenarios for both projects since neither projects’ schedule was completely solidified at the time.

The additional stakeholders we worked with included:

• The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District Five, who are the owners of SR 436 at the north end of the interchange
• The City of Orlando and Orange County, who are the owners of several local roads, were affected by this reconstruction project
• Utility Agency Owners, including AT&T and Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC), who had facilities within the interchange. Additionally, we designed a water main with casing for Orange County Utilities (OCU)
• The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) required coordination for temporary items such as cranes and permanent features like bridges, sign structures, and light poles due to the close proximity to OIA
• The Water Management Districts (WMDs), including both South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) required coordination for permitting and adherence to strict water quality guidelines at OIA

Collaboration During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Accelerate the Project

Restrictive lane closure requirements gave the contractor only a few hours during the night to do complex work. However, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique scenario for the CFX Project Team and stakeholders to partner together to accelerate the construction schedule. With air travel coming to a near halt, our team worked with SEMA and RK&K to reconfigure our temporary traffic control plans to allow SEMA to expedite construction and take advantage of lower traffic volumes. We also prepared an alternative plan to accommodate high volumes of traffic in case airport activity began to quickly ramp back up. Because of how well all the teams partnered together, the project achieved the bonus milestone and we saved six months of construction time which directly benefited CFX, its customers and OIA travelers.

A Project Outcome Ready to Accommodate Future Growth

This reconstructed interchange provides increased capacity with an additional lane at each of the critical movements within the interchange as well as additional lanes along SR 528. These changes will better serve the growing Central Florida population, specifically CFX’s customers and the travelers at OIA. Our choice to eliminate the loop ramps and provide semi-directional flyovers for all movements, helps assist tourists, who are often unfamiliar with the area, through this busy interchange. The new fully directional systems interchange alleviates a previous left merge that caused drivers to get into accidents in the area. All these improvements have been designed to accommodate the current and future traffic needs of the area as more people travel through and move to Central Florida. Since aesthetics are very important to both CFX and GOAA, the coatings in the east and west areas of the interchange were updated to create a cohesive look throughout the entire interchange. The project is currently constructed and receiving aesthetically enhanced landscaping to match the rest of the airport.