A proposed interchange at the Florida Turnpike and County Road 468 was shelved Wednesday by the Lake-Sumter Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The MPO voted unanimously without debate to postpone building that interchange and instead put resources into upgrading the turnpike interchange at U.S. 301 in Wildwood. The 468 interchange would remain on the drawing boards, however, for possible future development.
Although the MPO isn’t the final authority on the project, the Florida Department of Transportation relies on its recommendations for transportation project funding priorities. Florida Turnpike officials indicated they had no objection to the change during a telephone conference with local officials last month.
The possibility of abandoning the 468 interchange was raised earlier this month at the MPO technical advisory committee.
Construction originally was scheduled to begin later this year and the 468 interchange would have provided a smoother turnpike connection for villagers via an extended Morse Boulevard and a short jog on State Road 44.
Without that interchange, Villagers can access the turnpike at U.S. 301 or County Road 470 south of Leesburg. Plans remain to extend Morse Boulevard as far south as State Road 44.
Sumter County Administrator Bradley Arnold told MPO members there isn’t enough money available to adequately fund both the 301 and 468 interchange projects.
“The (301) bridges are obsolete,” he said. “Rather than building a new interchange, we want to correct an existing interchange.”
T.J. Fish, the MPO’s executive director, said traffic studies have shown minimal impact from postponing the 468 interchange. The studies included traffic counts and an interchange justification report by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise in March 2010.
“When we look at the 468 interchange, it doesn’t have a dramatic effect on the network,” he said. “The proposed interchange is a bonus, but it’s not what we need today.”
Fish said the 301 interchange was built as a rural access point in the 1960s and hasn’t been upgraded significantly since then despite a large population increase.
The plan to upgrade that interchange would include improvements to the busy nearby intersection of 44 and 301 and widening 301 south of the turnpike to four lanes.
Fish said officials also are studying a possible new interchange along Interstate 75 south of Wildwood near Coleman.