INTERSTATE 4

'Interstate 4' (abbreviated 'I-4') is a 132.30-mile (212.91 km) intrastate Interstate Highway located entirely within the state of Florida, United States. It goes from Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida () to Interstate 95 at Daytona Beach, Florida (). It also has the Florida Department of Transportation designation of 'State Road 400', but only a small portion of the route is signed at the east end.
I-4 is currently the lowest-numbered Interstate Highway in the contiguous 48 U.S. states.
The combination of the Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando and Daytona Beach metropolitan areas is often referred to as the 'I-4 Corridor', since the freeway connects all four.

Contents

Route description

Daytona Beach

History

Tampa area

Orlando area

Halifax River Bridge

Future

Orlando area

Exit list

See also

References

External links

Route description

I-4 maintains a diagonal, northeast-southwest route for its entire length. Throughout most of Orange County and Seminole County, I-4 travels in a roughly north-south direction.
At an interchange with I-95 in Daytona Beach, I-4 terminates; however, SR 400 continues eastward into Daytona Beach.

Daytona Beach

SR 400, unsigned while concurrent with I-4, becomes signed east of I-95. The road extends for three miles from the northeast terminus of I-4 to an intersection with U.S. Route 1 (SR 5) in Daytona Beach. Named Beville Road, it runs along the boundary between Daytona Beach and South Daytona.

History

Major cities 'Bolded cities' are officially-designated control cities for signs
★ 'Tampa, Florida' ★ Lakeland, Florida ★ Plant City, Florida ★ Davenport, Florida ★ Kissimmee, Florida ★ 'Orlando, Florida' ★ Sanford, Florida ★ Orange City, Florida ★ DeLand, Florida ★ 'Daytona Beach, Florida'

I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways to be constructed in Florida. The first section opened between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. In 1960/1961, the Howard Frankland Bridge opened to traffic, as well as the segment from 50th St in Tampa to Plant City. The stretch from Lake Monroe to Lake Helen also opened during that period. The segment from Lakeland to Orlando was complete by 1962. By the mid 1960s, several segments were already complete, including Malfunction Junction in Tampa and parts of I-4 through Orlando.
The original western terminus was set in South Pasadena in the late 1960s, but this plan was rejected due to local opposition. As a result, I-4 only went as far southwest as 9th St N in St. Petersburg.
The entire interstate system was completed by the late 1960s. However, the western terminus was truncated to Malfunction Junction in 1971 when I-75 was extended over the Frankland Bridge. Eventually, that stretch was again redesignated to become part of I-275.
In maps and atlases dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, The Tampa/St. Petersburg section of Interstate 4/Interstate 275 was marked as the 'Tampa Expressway'. The Orlando segment was marked as the 'Orlando Expressway'. Both names have since faded from maps.
Although many post-1970 interchanges along I-4 were constructed before the recent widening projects, they were designed with I-4 expansion in mind. In other words, there is enough room available to widen I-4 to up to ten lanes without extensively modifying the interchanges. Some of these interchanges include the Interstate 75 stack (constructed in the 1980s) and several interchanges in Kissimmee (constructed in the late 1980s/early 1990s).
In the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the I-4 corridor, a site of significant growth, was a focus of political activity within the swing state of Florida. Communities along the I-4 corridor were perceived by both major political parties as having higher proportions of undecided voters as compared to more Republican- or Democratic-leaning portions of the state.^[2]

Tampa area

The interchange with what is today Interstate 75 was constructed in the early 1980s.
In Tampa, the exit to 40th Street (State Road 569) has been closed since late 2005 due to the ongoing reconstruction of I-4; it will not reopen due to a proposed connector highway with the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.^[3]
The I-4/I-275 interchange (Malfunction Junction) was rebuilt from 2002 to 2006, and I-4 is under staged renovations to be widened from four to six lanes (with eight lanes in certain segments). Much of this work is complete, and all new travel lanes are now open. Eventually, I-4 will be widened again to a total of at least ten lanes (five in each direction). Studies for this project are already underway and construction should commence sometime in the 2010s. Completion of the project should be around 2020.

Eastbound I-4 shifted to its new, permanent alignment between Malfunction Junction and 50th St on Tuesday, August 8, 2006 at 5:30am. The new alignment includes a right-lane ramp exit/entry at the 22nd St/21st St Interchange (The previous left-lane configuration was causing hazardous conditions to commuters since its opening in 2005). On Friday, August 11, 2006, a fourth lane opened on eastbound I-4 between the downtown junction and 50th St (led in by a newly opened third lane on the eastbound I-4 ramp from northbound I-275). And on Friday, August 18, the new westbound alignment, just west of 50th Street, opened. The newly opened lanes will improve flow throughout the interchange. The 50th St overpass however, will not be complete until late 2007.^[4][5][6][7] Also, the eastbound I-4 exit ramp to Columbus Drive/50th Street is situated to the left-hand side of the highway (as opposed to its former right-hand side exit). This exit shift went into effect in spring 2006 and is part of the new, permanent interstate configuration.

Orlando area

In the early/mid 1990s, several interchanges near Kissimmee were constructed/upgraded to accommodate increasing traffic going to and from Walt Disney World. However, I-4's main lanes were not widened in the process. Around the same time, the Southern Connector was extended to I-4.
The St. Johns River Veterans Memorial Bridge, a two-span six-lane replacement to the original four-lane bridge over the St. Johns River northeast of Orlando, was completed in 2004.
Tolled express lanes were being planned in the Orlando area as a traffic congestion relief technique for rush hour commuters. The name for them was to be Xpress 400, numbered after the state road designation for I-4, SR 400. However, due to U.S. Representative John Mica, they have been banned by a recently passed rider in the Federal transportation bill in 2005.
The eastbound exit to Robinson Street (State Road 526) permanently closed at 11PM on April 25, 2006, to make way for construction of the new eastbound onramp from State Road 408.^[8] The westbound offramp to Gore Street will also eventually close as part of the project.
The new flyover from I-4 west to John Young Parkway (County Road 423) opened the morning of April 27, 2006.^[9][10][11]

Halifax River Bridge

There have been a number of proposals for a bridge that would carry SR 400 (Beville Road) across the Halifax River to Daytona Beach Shores. Proponents say that this would improve traffic flow and assist in hurricane evacuations, while opponents claim that a bridge would lead to congestion and environmental damage. Somewhat of a hot topic in the local area in the 1990s, the bridge proposal currently appears to be dormant.

Future

Orlando area

Interchanges with U.S. Route 192 and State Road 408 are also currently undergoing major reconstruction. The new US 192 interchange will be completed in the summer of 2007, and several new ramps at the SR 408 interchange will open in 2009. The rest of the SR 408 improvements are scheduled for the next decade.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile	Exit #		Destinations	Notes
			New	Old
Hillsborough	Tampa				, Tampa International Airport	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
						westbound exit and eastbound entrance
			1	1
			2 (Future)		''I-4/Crosstown Connector'' south to Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway/Port of Tampa	Connector construction is scheduled to begin in 2009.
			3	3		Eastbound left exit, westbound left entrance. Eastbound right entrance and westbound right exit.
			5	4
			6	5	Orient Road	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			7	6
			9	7
			10	8
			14	9	McIntosh Road
			17	10	Branch Forbes Road
	Plant City		19	11
			21	12-13
			22	14
			25	15	County Line Road
Polk	Lakeland		27	15A	SR 570 East (Polk Parkway) – Winter Haven, Bartow
			28	16
			31	17
			32	18
			33	19
			38	20
			41	20A	SR 570 West (Polk Parkway) – Auburndale, Lakeland
			44	21
			48	22
			55	23
			58	24
Osceola
			60		SR 429 North – Apopka
	Disney World		62	24C-D	Disney World, Celebration
			62	24E	Toll SR 417 North – Sanford, International Airport	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			64	25	, Magic Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios	split into 64A and 64B
			65	26C-D	Osceola Parkway – Animal Kingdom, Wide World of Sports	was only 26C eastbound
Orange			67	26A-B	SR 536 To SR 417 – Epcot, Downtown Disney
			68	27
			71	27A	Central Florida Parkway – Sea World	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			72	28	SR 528 East (Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway) – International Airport, Cape Canaveral
			74A	29		was 29A westbound after 29B (current 74B) opened
			74B	29B	Universal	westbound exit and entrance
			75A-B	30A-B	– Universal
			77	31	25x20px Florida's Turnpike – Miami, Wildwood
			78	31A	Conroy Road
			79	32
			80A-B	33A-B	International Airport
			81A	34	Michigan Street	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
			81B-C	35	Kaley Avenue	was split into 35A and 35B westbound only
			82A	36	Toll SR 408 (East-West Expressway)
			82B	37	Gore Street '''(Closing Permanently in 2007)'''	westbound exit and entrance
	Orlando		82C	38	Anderson Street East '''(Temporarily Closed for construction of the new Anderson Street Bridge)'''
			83	39	South Street	westbound exit and eastbound entrance
			83A	40	'''(Closed Permanently in 2006)'''	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			83B	41
			84	42	Ivanhoe Boulevard
			85	43	Princeton Street
	Winter Park		86	44	Par Street	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			87	45
			88	46
			90	47		split into 90A and 90B eastbound
Seminole			92	48
			94	49
			98	50	Lake Mary Boulevard – Lake Mary, Heathrow
	Sanford		101A	51A
			101B		SR 417 South (Central Florida GreeneWay) – International Airport
			101C	51
			104	52
Volusia			108	53	County Road 4162 - Dirksen Drive/DeBary Avenue - DeBary, Deltona
			111	53CA-CB	County Road 4146 - Saxon Blvd. - Deltona, Orange City	split into 111A and 111B eastbound
	DeLand		114	54
			116	55	County Road 4116 - Orange Camp Road - Lake Helen
			118	56	State Road 44 - New York Avenue - New Smyrna Beach
	Daytona Beach		129	57	To	eastbound exit and westbound entrance
			132	58		eastbound exit and westbound entrance

See also

★ Hurricane Charley, sometimes referred to as the "I-4 Hurricane"

References

1. Route Log and Finder List: Table 1
2. CNN, Candidates eye voters on Florida's I-4, October 11, 2004
3. Tampa Bay Interstates, I-4/Crosstown Connector Project Page
4. Tampa Bay Interstates, Eastbound I-4 in new alignment, August 8, 2006
5. WTSP, Eastbound I-4 traffic: New lanes, new exit through Ybor City, August 7, 2006
6. WTSP, New I-4 lanes help drivers get to concert early, August 10, 2006
7. Tampa Bay Interstates, New eastbound I-4 lane open!, August 8, 2006
8. Central Florida News 13, On The Move, April 25, 2006
9. Orlando Sentinel, Rising above I-4 crowds, April 26, 2006
10. WESH, Changes Under Way On I-4, April 26, 2006
11. Central Florida News 13, On The Move, April 26, 2006


★ FDOT GIS data

★ Historic Florida Interstate Information

External links

★ Trans4mation (Orlando-area reconstruction)

★ I4Polk.com (Lakeland-area reconstruction)

★ Tampa Bay Interstates (Tampa-area reconstruction)