The iconic West Orange Trail bridge near Orlando, Fla. – originally designed to support an old railroad line – has safely moved hundreds of thousands of cyclists, joggers, walkers, and even horseback riders over Florida’s Turnpike since 1994.

Built in 1964 for cargo and passenger trains commuting on the Orange Belt Railway, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) demolished the trestle-style bridge in 2022 and replaced it with a more modern but similar looking bridge that my team and I at DRMP designed.

The original West Orange Trail bridge. 

The demolition of the original bridge, located in the quaint Town of Oakland, was necessary to widen the Turnpike beneath it from four lanes to eight lanes, which required a longer span structure and removal of the intermediate pier supports.  

The new bridge – located just east of the Killarney Station trailhead – opened in September 2023 and transports pedestrians and even horseback riders on the 22-mile, tree-lined trail from one side of the Turnpike to the other.

New Bridge Features

Built on old rail alignments, the award-winning West Orange Trail is a 14-foot-wide scenic paved trail that passes through the Winter Garden, Oakland, and Apopka downtown communities in Orange County.

A cyclist rides through the new West Orange Trail bridge designed by DRMP. 

It became a recreational trail in 1994 as part of a nationwide rails-to-trails initiative that converts defunct railroad corridors into public recreational trails. The trail has played a key role in reinvigorating downtown Winter Garden into a popular destination full of restaurants, shops, bars, and a farmer’s market frequented by locals and tourists.

Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise partnered with Orange County, which owns and maintains the trail, to replace the bridge, and selected DRMP to design a new structure.

The old bridge, which did not meet today’s design standards, housed a water main line on the deck surface of the bridge and a handrail along the side of it. This decreased the width of the trail across the bridge from 14 feet to less than 10 feet.

When we designed the new structure, we increased the useable width to 14 feet to match the width of the adjoining trail and relocated the water main line to the outside of the bridge. We also provided additional vertical clearance to accommodate horseback riding. The vertical clearance along the enclosed truss structure is 12 feet. The length of the bridge also increased to 315 feet from 244 feet.  

DRMP's design of the new bridge relocated the water main line to the outside of the structure, which increased the useable width of the bridge. 

Preserving History

The original bridge had the iconic “West Orange Trail” signs affixed to each end of the structure and on each side of the center spans making the signs visible to vehicles traveling beneath it on the Turnpike.  The existing signs were maintained and installed on the new bridge to preserve a part of the bridge’s original character.

We knew the original bridge was well known for its allure, so we designed the new structure to mimic it as closely as possible by incorporating a similar box truss configuration.

DRMP's design of the new West Orange Trail bridge incorporates a box truss configuration to resemble the original trestle-style bridge. 

In the design, we reused the existing piles located in the Turnpike median and reconstructed a new concrete footing and pier. The original bridge was designed to support heavy railroad loads. This allowed us to reuse the existing piles to support the new longer span pedestrian structure.

Central Florida is home to many scenic and popular multi-use trails. They have become a staple in our communities. It was a privilege to get the opportunity to design a structure that mimicked one of the most recognized aesthetic bridges in Central Florida and serves as the entryway into Orange County from the Turnpike.