SR 408 Widening from SR 417 to Alafaya Trail (Contract 408-128)
The SR 408 Widening from SR 417 to Alafaya Trail project is a $60 million project for the Central Florida Expressway Authority. SR 408 is one of the highest travelled roads in Orlando and provides accessibility to the second largest university in the country, University of Central Florida, to downtown and other parts of the greater Orlando area. The corridor poses a challenge at SR 417 due to the reduction of general use travel lanes from 6-lanes to 4-lanes, and high demand vehicular traffic. The congestion has formed a bottleneck over the years from high traffic demands, which leads to congestions delaying motorists.
DRMP is responsible for the design and plans production of the widening of SR 408 from SR 417 to east of Alafaya Trail. This project was developed as a segment of the SR 408 widening from four general use lanes to six general use lanes. Located within Orange County, there are four existing SR 408 bridge crossing sites including the Little Econlockhatchee River, Rouse Road, Kehoe Boulevard, and Alafaya Trail. The first three sites are minor bridge widenings while the last is a bridge replacement. The SR 408 over the Little Econlockhatchee River includes widening both to the inside as well as closing a ramp gore for safety improvements and updated drainage along the bridge copings. This widening utilizes Florida-I 36 Beams. The Kehoe bridge widening site includes widening to both the inside and outside of the existing SR 408 with AASHTO Type II Beams, foundations include Steel H-piles. The SR 408 over Alafaya Trail bridge replacement uses Florida-U 72 Beams and eliminates an existing median pier thereby allowing an additional turn lane below the crossing.
DRMP’s design will remove the bottleneck on SR 408 at SR 417 by providing sufficient general use lanes up to the major exit for university traffic, Alafaya Trail. All structures are designed with engineering innovation to reduce maintenance costs and improve traffic flow efficiency. The improvements to this limited access highway will increase toll-funded revenues through increased motorist usage.
