Towering over I-4, 90-foot pylons will guide drivers to new toll lanes
As the mega-rebirth of Interstate 4 unfolds, 90-foot towers costing about $300,000 each are being built as artistic signage to show drivers where they can hop directly onto the interstate’s new toll lanes.
Builders in the gargantuan project have promised a “more aesthetically pleasing corridor through artful bridge design, lighting and landscaping.” Just the landscaping in the $2.3 billion I-4 overhaul will cost $28 million.
But some residents of College Park, increasingly exposed to the din and dust of I-4’s heavy construction and mourning the clear-cutting of greenery along Lake Ivanhoe, aren’t so aesthetically pleased with what amounts to towering toll signs.
Of five toll towers in the works along the stretch of I-4’s remake, the only built so far stands visible south of the lake and east of the interstate as naked concrete temporarily topped by an American flag.
“Looks like we traded trees for concrete. Ugh,”
said a contributor to the news feed of the social media website Nextdoor.
Another commenter, Ned Popkins, said the tower “eyesores” will mar Orlando’s skyline as they divide those who can afford “Lexus Lanes” from the “bumper-to-bumper lanes filled with ordinary folks.”
A German tourist staying near Lake Ivanhoe, Bernd Meier, struggled to articulate what he thought of the tower, especially after hearing it described as an enormous marker for toll-lane on-ramps.
“There are many things in the U.S. that we do not understand at all,” said Meier, at pains to not sound critical.
Two more towers will be built near Universal Studios in south Orlando, and another pair will stand in Altamonte Springs. There will be other, shorter towers along the 21 miles of reconstruction scheduled for completion in about five years.
Varied opinion over the towers is similar to another tower controversy eight years ago. Decorative treatment given then to the State Road 408 bridge across Lake Underhill was meant to suggest Golden Gate Bridge grandeur.
In widening S.R. 408, the Central Florida Expressway Authority added $1.5 million worth of towers and cables to the bridge as a stubby expression of the Golden Gate’s iconic suspension structure.
Coming during the Great Recession, and soon after an unpopular toll hike, the S.R. 408 enhancement was vilified as a waste of public money during a time of high unemployment.
But Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer dramatically came to the rescue of the faked, suspension-bridge look, asserting to local tollroad authorities that it would provide a distinctive look to the city’s eastern gateway.
“I view the bridge, the entrance feature, as a quality-of-life issue,” Dyer said then.
A resident of College Park, Dyer did not respond to a request for comment about the toll tower at the edge of his Orlando neighborhood.
The concept of converting Interstate 4, which was completed 50 years ago, into a hybrid of freeway and toll lanes has gained popularity among Florida officials.
To make it happen, the Florida Department of Transportation put aside its traditional approach of first designing, then building roadway.
Instead, the department turned much of the project over to a consortium of builders that provided some of the project financing and directed it to make haste by designing and building at the same time.
It’s up to the builder to determine the final price of the towers and their ultimate look, including the color and pattern of light they will emit from fixtures on top and along the sides of the structures.
According to project designers, the pylons are to echo the four twins of towers at Conroy Road bridge over I-4 near The Mall at Millenia.
In turn, the monumental direct-connect pylons will provide a “unified bold theme for the aesthetic elements throughout the entire corridor,” according to the designers.
“The entire look and feel of this roadway is going to be really, really cool,” builder spokesman Russ Handler said.