Fix to Wekiwa Springs traffic jams due this winter
State lawmakers earmarked $1 million in this year’s budget to deal with vexing summer traffic jams outside Wekiwa Springs State Park, but the fix won’t come until winter.
Known for clear, cool water that stays a refreshing 74 degrees year-round, Wekiwa Springs is among the most popular places in Central Florida to beat the heat. The park lures capacity crowds on weekends and holidays, jamming Wekiwa Springs Road with carloads of sweaty visitors and forcing the park’s closure.
The traffic tangle, which occurs every summer weekend, infuriates visitors and neighboring residents alike. Tie-ups on the two-lane road pose problems for neighborhoods in Orange and Seminole county that border the 9,509-acre conservation area.
“It really has been a challenge for residents, and it’s unsafe the way guests just sit there, waiting to get in,” said Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore, who lobbied Legislators for money to pay to improve the entrance and lengthen a turn lane into the
park. “The sheriff gets called here every holiday, every summer weekend.”
Proposed fixes include adding a ticket booth and another entry lane, which would take 33 vehicles off the road.
“By adding an additional entry lane, the queue stack within the park will be approximately 66 cars,” a DEP official wrote in an email to Orange County government, explaining its improvement plan for the state money. “The park is trying to do its part to alleviate traffic congestion by processing entry as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
But proposed fixes can’t begin in summer, the springs’ peak season.
So weekend visitors should be prepared for another summer of queuing up.
The right-turn lane into the park has room for just 13 cars. The 14th idling vehicle begins a road blockade that can stretch over 100 cars long, a half-mile or more.
That’s why nearby residents like Maryann Baker avoid the road when they can. She’s even wary about going for groceries on summer Saturdays.
The springs sits between her home and the supermarket just 2 1⁄2 miles away. Her 7-minute ride home from the store can sometimes be a 45-minute ordeal.
“You can’t go that way,” she said of the gridlock. “It’s not only crazy, it’s dangerous.”
Impatient motorists at times wheel around stopped cars, crossing the double-yellow line and veering into oncoming traffic on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Neighbors have captured video of vehicles driving in the grass on the opposite side of the road.
“If you’ve not been on Wekiwa Springs Road on a hot Saturday morning then you’re missing an experience,” Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine said.
Doug Maise, homeowners president in Sweetwater Country Club, wants state money — about $15,000 — to hire deputies to direct traffic on summer weekends.
“We believe we finally have a long-term solution, but something needs to be
done now in the meantime,” he said.
Wekiva Springs — which charges a $6-per-carload admission fee and $2 for pedestrians and bicyclists — attracts about 400,000 visitors a year, Park Manager Robert Brooks said.
Average annual attendance has risen about 150,000 in the past five years.
From Memorial Day to Labor Day, the park draws an average of 1,266 visitors on weekdays, a figure that balloons to 2,364 on weekends.
Brooks said the park closes when its 250 parking spaces are filled — and that happens every summer weekend.
“When it’s in the 90s, we will close and there will be a traffic jam outside,” he said.
A flashing sign on Wekiwa Springs Road alerts visitors when the park closes.
Drivers of waiting vehicles are informed they can’t wait in the entrance lane and admission will resume on a “one-out-one-in” basis.
“This adds to the congestion on the county road outside of the park,” according to a traffic report authored by Brooks.
Some vehicles leave the park but not the neighborhood, circling around to get in line again — “often multiple times,” the report said.