Interstate 4
Interstate 4 is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. Spanning along a generally southwest–northeast axis, I-4 is entirely concurrent with State Road 400. In the west, I-4 begins at an interchange with I-275 in Tampa. I-4 intersects with several major expressways as it traverses Central Florida, including US Highway 41 in Tampa; US 301 near Riverview; I-75 near Brandon; US 98 in Lakeland; US 27 in unincorporated Davenport; US 192 in Celebration; Florida's Turnpike in Orlando; and US 17 and US 92 in multiple junctions. In the east, I-4 ends at an interchange with I-95 in Daytona Beach, while SR 400 continues for roughly another and ends at an intersection with US 1 on the city line of Daytona Beach and South Daytona.
Construction on I-4 began in 1958; the first segment opened in 1959, and the entire highway was completed in 1965. The "I-4 Ultimate" project oversaw the construction of variable-toll express lanes and numerous redevelopments through the stretch of highway extending from Kirkman Road in Orlando to SR 434 in Longwood. The project broke ground in 2015, and the express lanes opened to traffic on February 26, 2022. Previously, the median of I-4 between Tampa and Orlando was the planned route of a now-canceled high-speed rail line; however, Brightline, an inter-city rail route, plans to use the I-4 right-of-way for their expansion of service to Tampa. From a political standpoint, the "I-4 corridor" is a strategic region given the large number of undecided voters in what has long been considered a swing state.
Route description
I-4 maintains a diagonal, northeast–southwest route for much of its length, although it is signed east–west. It roughly follows the original path of the South Florida Railroad built by Henry B. Plant in 1884.The highway starts its eastward journey at an interchange with I-275—known as "Malfunction Junction"—near Downtown Tampa and is the starting point for milemarkers and exit numbers. Just east of Malfunction Junction, I-4 passes along the north side of Tampa's Ybor City district, where a mile-long connector links to the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway and Port Tampa Bay. I-4 continues east past the Florida State Fairgrounds toward a turbine interchange with I-75.
File:Emergency Shoulder Use Eastbound Interstate 4 Before Hurricane Irma.webm|thumb|Eastbound I-4 at US 27 the afternoon before the arrival of Hurricane Irma on the Gulf Coast with emergency shoulder use to improve traffic capacity
After passing near the eastern suburbs of Hillsborough County—including Brandon and Plant City—it enters Polk County, where I-4 crosses along the north side of Lakeland. The Polk Parkway forms a semi-loop through Lakeland's southern suburbs and returns to I-4 at the Florida Polytechnic University campus, near Polk City; it does not serve as a bypass route for I-4 traffic. Just after the western junction with the Polk Parkway, I-4 turns from an eastward to a northeastward heading. Between SR 33 and US 27, I-4 passes through the fog-prone Green Swamp, although the landscape beside the highway is mostly forest as opposed to water-logged swampland. Ten variable-message signs and dozens of cameras and vehicle detection systems monitor this stretch of mostly-rural highway as a result of several large, deadly pileups caused by dense fog.
At mile 57, I-4 enters Osceola County and, soon thereafter, intersects Greater Orlando's beltways: the Western Expressway on the western side and the Central Florida GreeneWay which rounds the eastern side before returning to I-4 in Sanford. Additionally, an exit to World Drive runs north as a limited-access highway into Walt Disney World and an electric pylon in the shape of Mickey Mouse can be seen on the southwest corner of the intersection. The single Central Florida GreeneWay/World Drive exit also marks an abrupt change from rural to suburban/urban landscape. The highway passes beside Celebration and Kissimmee on the east side and Walt Disney World on the west side.
For the next, I-4 passes through Greater Orlando, where the highway forms the main north–south artery. It enters Orange County, passes through Walt Disney World and by SeaWorld Orlando and Universal Orlando, and intersects all of the area's major toll roads, including the Beachline Expressway, Florida's Turnpike, and the East–West Expressway. Orlando's main tourist strip—International Drive—runs parallel and no more than from I-4 between Kissimmee and Florida's Turnpike. Between Michigan Street and Kaley Avenue, I-4 turns due north, heading past Downtown Orlando and its northern suburbs. A section of I-4 from west of SR 435 to east of SR 434 underwent a $2.3-billion reconstruction, and was completed on February 26, 2022. This project replaced most bridges, changed the configurations of many intersections, and added two express toll lanes—named I-4 Express—in each direction.
After passing along the west side of Downtown Orlando, I-4 continues through the city's northern suburbs—including Winter Park, Maitland, Altamonte Springs, and Sanford. Around mile 91, I-4 enters Seminole County and, soon thereafter, shifts to a northeast heading. The Seminole Expressway, after passing around the east side of Greater Orlando, has its northern terminus at I-4 in Sanford. This intersection will also connect with the Wekiva Parkway, at which point a full beltway around Greater Orlando will be available. On October 21, 2022, the first part of this connection opened to traffic, with the westbound I-4 to southbound SR 429 ramp opening to traffic, along with the section of the southbound lanes between the ramp and SR 46.
North of Sanford, I-4 is carried by the St. Johns River Veterans Memorial Bridge over the St. Johns River at the mouth of Lake Monroe. Along the bridge, I-4 enters Volusia County and passes Deltona and DeLand. The segment north of SR 44 has been widened from four to six lanes. Completed in winter 2016–2017, the entire length of I-4 has at least six lanes. A 9.6 mile exit less stretch along Interstate 4 commences northeast from SR 44 and DeLand toward toward Daytona Beach. The freeway traverses wetland areas at Deep Creek Swamp and Tiger Bay State Forest|Tiger Bay along this stretch. I-4 terminates at a junction with I-95 in Daytona Beach. SR 400 continues east into Daytona Beach to US 1.
Services
I-4 has two pairs of rest areas, one near Polk City and the other near Longwood. At each location, there are separate facilities on opposite sides of the freeway that provide services to traffic in both directions. The rest areas all provide disabled facilities with restrooms, picnic tables, drinking water, pet exercise areas, outside night lights, telephones, vending machines, and nighttime security.FDOT closed a pair of rest areas at the Daryl Carter Parkway overpass near Lake Buena Vista in early 1999 and replaced them with retention ponds to serve runoff from an additional lane in each direction of I-4. Another former rest area, without any bathrooms, existed on the eastbound side near mile 127 in Volusia County.
A pair of weigh stations including weigh in motion scales is present at mile 12 between Tampa and Plant City. They were opened in January 2009 to replace a pair just west of the SR 566 interchange at mile 19.
History
I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways to be constructed in Florida, with the first section opening between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. By early 1960, the Howard Frankland Bridge was opened to traffic, as well as the segment from the Hillsborough Avenue/US 301 junction in Tampa to Plant City. The stretch from Lake Monroe to Lake Helen, including the original St. Johns River Veterans Memorial Bridge also opened during that period. The segment from Tampa to Orlando was complete by 1962. By the mid-1960s, several segments were already complete, including Malfunction Junction in Tampa and parts of I-4 through Orlando. The original western terminus was set at Central Avenue in St. Petersburg, though a non-Interstate extension would have continued south and west to Pasadena. Proposed I-4 was later extended southwest to the present location of I-275 exit 20, with a planned temporary end at US 19 and 13th Avenue South, and a continuation to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge was also designated as part of I-4. Construction was stalled at 9th Street North for several years.The entire Interstate Highway was completed by the late 1960s; however, the western terminus was truncated to Malfunction Junction in 1971 when I-75 was extended over the Howard Frankland Bridge. Eventually, that stretch was again redesignated to become part of I-275.
In maps and atlases dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the Tampa–St. Petersburg section of I-4/I-275 was marked as the Tampa Expressway. The Orlando segment was marked as the Orlando Expressway. Both names have since faded from maps.
Although many post-1970 interchanges along I-4 were constructed before the recent widening projects, they were designed with I-4 expansion in mind. In other words, there is enough room available to widen I-4 to up to 10 lanes without extensively modifying the interchanges. Some of these interchanges include the I-75 turbine and several interchanges serving the Walt Disney World Resort.
In 2002, I-4, along with most of Florida's Interstates, switched over from a sequential exit numbering system to a mileage-based exit numbering system.
A section of I-4 between Daytona Beach and Orlando, called the "dead zone", is rumored to be haunted. In 2010, the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council, using geographic information system technology, performed an analysis to determine if this identified zone had an increased fatality rate related to crashes. The analysis, which compared this section of I-4 to several other dangerous I-4 sections, found that, while the dead zone area did not have the highest accident or fatality rate, it did identify that the percentage of fatality to accident was significantly higher in this location. Multiple hurricanes, including three category 4 hurricanes have also passed over that area.
The median of I-4 between Tampa and Orlando was slated to be used for the Florida High-Speed Corridor line between those cities. As a result of a state constitutional amendment to build a high-speed rail system between its five largest cities passed by voters in 2000, construction projects on I-4 included a wide median to accommodate a high-speed rail line. The high-speed rail project was canceled in 2004 but revived again in 2009. In 2010, the federal government awarded Florida over $2 billion —nearly the entire projected construction cost—to build the line, with work on the project to begin in 2011 and be completed by 2014. However, Governor Rick Scott's rejection of the funding ended the project.
On January 9, 2008, 70 vehicles were involved in a large pileup on I-4 near Polk City. The pileup was caused by an unexpected thick morning fog that was mixed with a scheduled—and approved—environmental burn by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The fog drifted across I-4, mixing with the smoke and reducing visibility to near-zero conditions. Four people were killed and 38 were injured. The section of I-4 did not reopen until the next day, January 10.