Florida State Road 429
State Road 429 is a controlled-access toll road in the Greater Orlando, Florida area. SR 429 serves as the western half of a beltway around the area, with SR 417 as the eastern half. South of US 441, the road is known as either the Daniel Webster Western Beltway or the Western Expressway; north of US 441, the road is known as Wekiva Parkway.
SR 429's mainline extends from I-4 in Four Corners north to I-4/SR 417 in Sanford, passing through Horizon West, Winter Garden, Ocoee, and Apopka. Various segments of the road are operated by the Florida Department of Transportation, the Central Florida Expressway Authority, and Florida's Turnpike Enterprise.
Route description
SR 429 traverses some of the highest elevations in Orange County and is often within a few miles of the Lake Wales Ridge. It runs along the west side of Greater Orlando, later curving around Apopka, crossing the Wekiva River into Seminole County and connecting with Interstate 4 and Florida State Road 417 to complete a nearly complete ring around the city. The road peaks at Mile Marker 13 where on clear days it is possible to see the skyline of downtown Orlando to the northeast and various portions of Walt Disney World Resort to the southeast.Florida's Turnpike Enterprise maintains the portion of the expressway south of Seidel Road, and CFX controls the portion north of the interchange. FDOT controls the portion north of SR 46.
History
The highway is named the "Daniel Webster Western Beltway" in honor of Daniel Webster, Florida's longest-serving legislator and figure often involved in state transportation issues. Due to various complications in the planning and zoning phases of the roadway, Section B would end up being constructed much later than Sections A and C.Section A
[Image:Forest Lake Toll Plaza.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Southbound at the Forest Lake Mainline Toll Plaza]Section A is the original section from Florida's Turnpike in Ocoee, to US 441 in Apopka. It has a toll plaza in the middle, which was one of the first toll plazas in the Orlando area with open road tolling for users of the E-Pass and related electronic toll collection systems. The road itself was finished in July 2000, temporarily ending at SR 50, and the four-level cloverstack interchange with Florida's Turnpike was completed in February 2001. Prior to the reconstruction of the I-4/SR 408 interchange near Downtown Orlando in 2021, this interchange featured the highest ramp in the Orlando area.
SR 429 was planned to continue north from its original US 441 junction, but because the land needed for this proposed SR 429 extension’s right of way was not secured ahead of time, new housing was developed north of the US 441 junction. This forced a change in plans for the extension of SR 429, leading to the re-designation of the northernmost 1.9 miles of what was SR 429 to the newly-created State Road 451 toll road in January 2013. This “new” toll road — with minimal new construction — consisted primarily of existing roadway, and in essence, simply re-designated the portion of SR 429 north of its junction with SR 414. In doing so — and in order to continue northward extension of SR 429, the original section of roadway south of SR 414 was rerouted on a track to the west, on a newly constructed section of highway that is dually-designated as both SR 429 and SR 414 toll roads, and extends them both to an interchange with US 441 which lies approximately 2.5 miles north-west of the original SR 429/US 441 junction. North of this interchange with US-441, the SR 414 designation ends, and the toll road continues under the SR 429 designation. Thus, this rerouting shifted the roadway to the west, allowing it to continue north of US-441 on secured land before turning eastward and rejoining the right-of-way that was planned for construction of the long-awaited Wekiva Parkway. The Wekiva Parkway would complete the ultimate goal of extending SR 429 northwards to a junction with I-4, and thereby complete a Western Beltway around the Orlando metro area.
Section B
Section B, also known as the Wekiva Parkway, is a section of SR 429 connecting from US 441 in Apopka to I-4 in Sanford. It had been under debate for over a decade due to its planned alignment being complicated by the ecologically fragile Wekiva River basin, shifting support from Lake County, and the need to re-align the planned path due to the original route being blocked by residential development to the north of Section A’s northern terminal junction with US-441. In 2004, an agreement was reached for its completion. SR 429 is now linked with SR 417, creating a continuous beltway north of Orlando; however, older plans involved a short drive on I-4 or its collector/distributor roads to reach SR 417.On May 25, 2011, the Florida Department of Transportation and CFX announced that they were partnering to jointly explore the construction of the Wekiva Parkway extension. The proposed route would extend through Orange, Lake, and Seminole Counties and was estimated to cost $1.8 billion. Officials hoped to break ground in 2012, with completion by 2021.
On January 20, 2016, the first stub section from CR 435 near Haas Road in Orange County to SR 46 east of Camp Challenge Road in Lake County opened to traffic and it is the first all-electronic toll road in Central Florida.
On July 27, 2017, the Wekiva Parkway's mainline was extended from the US 441 connector road to a new northern terminus at Kelly Park Road.
On March 31, 2018, the Wekiva Parkway's mainline was extended from Kelly Park Road to a new northern terminus at SR 46. Along with this, a spur known as SR 453 connecting the Wekiva Parkway with SR 46 near Sorrento was opened in conjunction with the extension. This was the final section of the CFX's Section 2 of the road, and the final section of the CFX's section altogether. The final section of the Wekiva Parkway between SR 46 and I-4 was constructed and is maintained by FDOT.
On May 16, 2022, a section of the Wekiva Parkway between SR 46 near Mount Plymouth to SR 46 just west of Longwood Markham Road in Seminole County opened to traffic. This was the longest section of FDOT's section of the highway to open and includes several wildlife crossing bridges.
On August 1, 2022, the northbound lanes of a section of the Wekiva Parkway between SR 46 just west of Longwood Markham Road and SR 46 just west of Orange Boulevard in Seminole County opened to traffic, while the southbound lanes opened to traffic on August 15, 2022.
On October 21, 2022, the ramp from westbound I-4 to southbound SR 429, along with the section of the southbound lanes to SR 46 opened to traffic. This section is in length.
On January 26, 2024, the final segment of the Wekiva Parkway at SR 46 just west of Orange Boulevard in Seminole County to I-4 in Sanford opened to traffic, thus officially completing the entirety of SR 429 and by extension the greater beltway around Greater Orlando, comprising SR 429 along with SR 417.