Interstate 4 in the beginning
Whitley: Was the price of original I-4 really a bargain?
The pivotal stretch of Interstate 4 through Orange County was eight miles long. The current I-4 Ultimate project covers 21 miles. Orlando Magic center Nik Vucevic measures 84 inches from end to end.
That, in a weird I-4 kind of way, brings us to this week’s Ask Orlando question.
“Would it be of interest to find the time and cost of the original I-4 from the Osceola County line to the Seminole County line?”
It would, if for no other reason than to show how the cost of living, roads and NBA players have skyrocketed since 1965.
On a crisp March morning that year, Gov. Haydon Burns and other dignitaries sat in the first car to travel through downtown Orlando on Interstate 4.
At last report, they are still trying to get off on the temporary exit between South Street and the 408.
Forgive me, but I had to get in the requisite knock on the I-4 Ultimate. One day, it will be worth the driving torture we’ve endured since Gov. Rick Scott dug a ceremonial shovel into the dirt on a cool February day in 2015.
“The I-4 Ultimate project will reduce congestion while continuing to make our roadways better, safer and easier for Florida families and our visitors,” he proclaimed.
Scott sounded a lot like Burns, who said I-4 would eventually make life peachy for all life forms in Florida.
The “eventually” was due to an apparent oversight in Dwight
Eisenhower’s grand plan to build superhighways through America. When the president signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1965, planners apparently didn’t think about the call of nature.
“In many areas, motorists must drive several miles off the highways to find sanitary facilities,” said a story in that day’s Orlando Evening Star.
Burns vowed to address the crisis.
“We have an obligation to meet the needs of the more than 10 million motorists who will visit us annually,” he said.
Motorists have long been told I-4 will meet its travel obligations, so you’ll excuse them for scoffing as they travel 2 mph looking for sanitary bathrooms.
One reason for the slog is our financial lifeblood — tourism. Those 10 million visitors Burns mentioned are now closer to 130 million. But if you think that’s gone up, check out the price of a superhighway.
The original 133-mile stretch from Tampa to Daytona Beach cost $114 million. This week’s questioner asked about the cost of I-4 for the Orange County portion. It’s hard to say precisely because the entire project was constructed in six segments with six different price tags.
The final one was an 8.2-mile segment from Rio Grande Avenue to Lee Road. It’s not county line to county line, but it is where most of the traffic has been snarled for almost 55 years. It was dubbed the “Orlando
Expressway” and cost $42.2 million.
Fast forward to Scott’s day with the shovel. The I-4 Ultimate’s projected cost is $2.3 billion. That’s almost 55 times more expensive than the “Orlando Expressway.”
Granted, it’s 13 miles longer than the 1965 original, and a dollar went a lot farther when Burns was governor. But if you factor in inflation, $42.2 million would still be a mere $346 million.
That’s roughly $2 billion less than the newand-improved project. An I-4 Ultimate spokesperson said the increase is due to stuff like “more stringent environmental and design criteria, complex utility relocations, accommodations for future intelligent transport technology,” etc., etc., etc.
I just hope they spend at least a few bucks on sanitary bathrooms.
So what does all this have to do with Vucevic? Not much, other than to offer a little perspective on inflation.
The 7-footer cost $100 million, and that’s just for the four years in his contract. The $42 million “Orlando Expressway” price tag was 42% of that.
So for what taxpayers paid for the original 8.2-mile stretch of superhighway through downtown Orlando, you could now get 2.9 feet of Nik Vucevic.
That might seem pricey, but at least “Vooch” is an All-Star and doesn’t have potholes every five feet. Which brings us back to this week’s question.
The original stretch of I-4 in Orange County cost $42.2 million, and the governor said it would be a highway to heaven.
Fifty years later, the $2.3 billion I-4 Ultimate began and the governor said it will reduce congestion, alleviate road rage and possibly cure male-pattern baldness.
You don’t have to be a psychic to predict that on a chilly day in 2065, Gov. Tim Tebow Jr. will kick off the I-4 Super Duper Ultimate project and say it will be worth its price tag of $4.6 gazillion, bathrooms not included.
Hopefully by then the car carrying Gov. Burns will have made it through the 408 interchange.