News Crossroads Plaza Faces Demoliton

[Disney Maddux]

Please let the Jamba Juice be relocated into Disney Springs.

PLS

 

[donsullivan]

Have you ever driven through here? Like daily and on the interstate or surface? I can count on Champion's Gate and LBV to back up in this area, every day and for hours.

Yup. This area has had major traffic congestion issues for many years now. As they expand I4 to add capacity, it’s only getting worse with each passing year. This is a messy solution, but it’s really the best available option to attempt to improve the conditions. This project is more than a decade overdue.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I am going to miss a few of those places. Here's hoping that they find life either somewhere else on 535 or explore locations outside - maybe the area on Palm Pkwy (either existing or the new stuff north of Lake Road). Also, I'd think once some of the new hotels and the residentials are built out, Western Way could become an option.

 

[Magic Feather]

Please let the Jamba Juice be relocated into Disney Springs.

PLS

Jamba has been gone, unfortunately. The brand's brief foray into Orlando ultimately proved unsuccessful.


Also, this version only involves killing 1 hotel, 1 gift shop, 1 Waffle House, 1 Red Lobster, and 1 Perkins (and the last 2 are only to accommodate the huge retention pond I threw in there to appease the people that seem heck bent on putting in there).

Red is an elevated roadway (Purple is where it goes to meet road level). This eliminates the light at the current off ramp here on I-4 West Bound entirely, and reduces congestion at the HP Blvd intersection by eliminating the left turn lane in favor of an overpass, making it to where people only need to sit through a light to get onto Disney property if they are going from the Crossroads (which is a small number of people.

Effectively throwing away a giant shopping plaza for an offramp and giant retention ponds is a huge waste in an area where space is already at a premium. I wouldn't be surprised to see these retention ponds getting displaced within 20 years of being made.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Effectively throwing away a giant shopping plaza for an offramp and giant retention ponds is a huge waste in an area where space is already at a premium. I wouldn't be surprised to see these retention ponds getting displaced within 20 years of being made.

Probably for a giant shopping plaza.

 

[donsullivan]

Jamba has been gone, unfortunately. The brand's brief foray into Orlando ultimately proved unsuccessful.


Also, this version only involves killing 1 hotel, 1 gift shop, 1 Waffle House, 1 Red Lobster, and 1 Perkins (and the last 2 are only to accommodate the huge retention pond I threw in there to appease the people that seem heck bent on putting in there).View attachment 525720
Red is an elevated roadway (Purple is where it goes to meet road level). This eliminates the light at the current off ramp here on I-4 West Bound entirely, and reduces congestion at the HP Blvd intersection by eliminating the left turn lane in favor of an overpass, making it to where people only need to sit through a light to get onto Disney property if they are going from the Crossroads (which is a small number of people.

Effectively throwing away a giant shopping plaza for an offramp and giant retention ponds is a huge waste in an area where space is already at a premium. I wouldn't be surprised to see these retention ponds getting displaced within 20 years of being made.

This project is not just about changing traffic onto Hotel Boulevard. Over the last 10-15 years there has been a massive amount of residential development to the east, north and west of the RCID property. That growth has created massive floods of traffic through that intersections that just keeps getting worse with each passing year. They need to improve the flow of traffic into the WDW property and in both directions to and from 535 north from the intersection.

This sketch ignores the crazy volume of traffic through that ramp/intersection that is not heading to or from the WDW property. I have seen I4 back up for miles during rush hour in the afternoon and it’s been getting increasingly worse with each passing year. The state would not be spending all this money for the eminent domain cost or the construction cost if there was a less expensive way out of it. The expansion of I4 requires the addition of additional retention ponds to support the runoff from the additional impermeable surface being created. That is an absolute requirement in the Florida climate.

The bottom line is that a major redesign of this whole intersection to flow traffic more quickly and efficiently is long overdue, and just throwing bandaids at it instead of doing the whole thing are just a waste of time and money.

The story, and the need has not changed in 4 years- it just keeps getting worse.
Post in thread 'Crossroads Plaza Faces Demoliton'
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/crossroads-plaza-faces-demoliton.923423/post-7528036

 

[SLUSHIE]

Can't say I will really miss anything over there (except maybe the Taco Bell), but it seems like this would be better solved by some flyovers that bypass the signal all together for people going to Disney. The Shopping center could left more or less as it is that way. This solution may end up being cheaper, but it doesn't really seem like it changes anything that much.

 

[Creathir]

I’ll miss UNO’s the most here...

 

[Lora Baines Bradley]

This sucks. On the weekends I like to Doordash in that area as a lot of people staying on property order from the restaurants there. Is everything going? I go into the Buffalo Wild Wings and Bahama Breeze all the time to pick up orders.

 

[Magic Feather]

This project is not just about changing traffic onto Hotel Boulevard. Over the last 10-15 years there has been a massive amount of residential development to the east, north and west of the RCID property. That growth has created massive floods of traffic through that intersections that just keeps getting worse with each passing year. They need to improve the flow of traffic into the WDW property and in both directions to and from 535 north from the intersection.

This sketch ignores the crazy volume of traffic through that ramp/intersection that is not heading to or from the WDW property. I have seen I4 back up for miles during rush hour in the afternoon and it’s been getting increasingly worse with each passing year. The state would not be spending all this money for the eminent domain cost or the construction cost if there was a less expensive way out of it. The expansion of I4 requires the addition of additional retention ponds to support the runoff from the additional impermeable surface being created. That is an absolute requirement in the Florida climate.

The bottom line is that a major redesign of this whole intersection to flow traffic more quickly and efficiently is long overdue, and just throwing bandaids at it instead of doing the whole thing are just a waste of time and money.

The story, and the need has not changed in 4 years- it just keeps getting worse.
Post in thread 'Crossroads Plaza Faces Demoliton'
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/crossroads-plaza-faces-demoliton.923423/post-7528036

IMO, that growth would be better served by a new exit at Daryl Carter Parkway, but the retain development built up in a way that makes it near impossible. This is just trying to force more people onto a road that wasn’t built for it. That’s not changing by rearranging on off ramp.

Also, while merely anecdotal, most recently, I lived in Orlando for 10 years up until about a year ago, and I never saw the exit being backed up far past the point where it forks off from the main interstate. There definitely were other ways. This is just a way that fixes it while making giant retention ponds (because it’s not like we could have made retention ponds of this scale a mile north or south where there is ample room to do so).

 

[Thelazer]

Now you know why so much building is occuring at 429 / 192

 

[maxairmike]

IMO, that growth would be better served by a new exit at Daryl Carter Parkway, but the retain development built up in a way that makes it near impossible. This is just trying to force more people onto a road that wasn’t built for it. That’s not changing by rearranging on off ramp.

Also, while merely anecdotal, most recently, I lived in Orlando for 10 years up until about a year ago, and I never saw the exit being backed up far past the point where it forks off from the main interstate. There definitely were other ways. This is just a way that fixes it while making giant retention ponds (because it’s not like we could have made retention ponds of this scale a mile north or south where there is ample room to do so).

Traffic between here and Sand Lake as well as 192 and Champions Gate is already getting back to pre-pandemic levels, despite tourism being curtailed, large layoffs in the service industry, and a large amount of professional jobs in all industries being work from home. The steady (and not stopping anytime soon) increase in local traffic more than justifies these modifications. Is it a little sprawling of a solution? Yeah, I don't entirely like it, either, but when you look at what the intent is with keeping certain traffic flowing consistently, it fits the needs of the problems being solved. There are ramps coming to Daryl Carter in the Beyond the Ultimate project, which this new 535 interchange is a part of.

 

[techgeek]

If you want to see some insane, over-engineered interchanges... look at some of the new FDoT construction over on I-75. The ramps at I-75 / SR50 just finished a multi-year project, and now the northbound exit ramp has been pushed back almost a full mile from the interchange and passes enough retention pond acreage to drain half the state.

The SR50 / US27 interchange in Clermont is only a few years, old but replaced a functional interchange with a jumbled, confusing mess that actually eliminated a ramp (it's impossible to go directly from US27 North to SR50 East) and forces a ton of unnecessary u-turns on SR50.

The I-275 project west of downtown Tampa plowed under tons of property to triple its right-of-way width.

I'm not going to even start on how many palm trees have been planted... every new interchange demands hundreds!

Bigger is apparently better...?

 

[maxairmike]

If you want to see some insane, over-engineered interchanges... look at some of the new FDoT construction over on I-75. The ramps at I-75 / SR50 just finished a multi-year project, and now the northbound exit ramp has been pushed back almost a full mile from the interchange and passes enough retention pond acreage to drain half the state.

The SR50 / US27 interchange in Clermont is only a few years, old but replaced a functional interchange with a jumbled, confusing mess that actually eliminated a ramp (it's impossible to go directly from US27 North to SR50 East) and forces a ton of unnecessary u-turns on SR50.

The I-275 project west of downtown Tampa plowed under tons of property to triple its right-of-way width.

I'm not going to even start on how many palm trees have been planted... every new interchange demands hundreds!

Bigger is apparently better...?

Oh man, that 27N to 50E "exit" drives me nuts. Looking at the size of the 75/SR50 interchange, it looks like it might be in anticipation of bringing express lanes up 75 north of Tampa (if they ever happen in Tampa and south of it on 75), otherwise it just seems wide for the sake of being wide.

 

[lazyboy97o]

If you want to see some insane, over-engineered interchanges... look at some of the new FDoT construction over on I-75. The ramps at I-75 / SR50 just finished a multi-year project, and now the northbound exit ramp has been pushed back almost a full mile from the interchange and passes enough retention pond acreage to drain half the state.

The SR50 / US27 interchange in Clermont is only a few years, old but replaced a functional interchange with a jumbled, confusing mess that actually eliminated a ramp (it's impossible to go directly from US27 North to SR50 East) and forces a ton of unnecessary u-turns on SR50.

The I-275 project west of downtown Tampa plowed under tons of property to triple its right-of-way width.

I'm not going to even start on how many palm trees have been planted... every new interchange demands hundreds!

Bigger is apparently better...?

Making Robert Moses proud.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Yup. This area has had major traffic congestion issues for many years now. As they expand I4 to add capacity, it’s only getting worse with each passing year. This is a messy solution, but it’s really the best available option to attempt to improve the conditions. This project is more than a decade overdue.

You mean that idiot “privately built” toll road down the center didn’t fix all the problems?

Shocking

If you want to see some insane, over-engineered interchanges... look at some of the new FDoT construction over on I-75. The ramps at I-75 / SR50 just finished a multi-year project, and now the northbound exit ramp has been pushed back almost a full mile from the interchange and passes enough retention pond acreage to drain half the state.

The SR50 / US27 interchange in Clermont is only a few years, old but replaced a functional interchange with a jumbled, confusing mess that actually eliminated a ramp (it's impossible to go directly from US27 North to SR50 East) and forces a ton of unnecessary u-turns on SR50.

The I-275 project west of downtown Tampa plowed under tons of property to triple its right-of-way width.

I'm not going to even start on how many palm trees have been planted... every new interchange demands hundreds!

Bigger is apparently better...?

They’re just terrible at road designs...you get what you pay for. Not surprising at all.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Dang... I’ve been to that Taco Bell many a times. Great place to NOT spend 15 per person.

 

[corran horn]

That plaza died to me the second they removed Jungle Jim's.

Peanut butter on a burger. Never thought it'd work. It did, for me.

This is a funny quote:

The 25 business tenants, which are still open today, won’t vacate until the end of August, Hipp said, calling it a “win-win.”

Not sure it's a 'win' for them since they're ultimately having to close.

We will miss that Chevy's, strangely enough, as they closed all the ones here and that was a convenient one to hit while on vacation.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

That's currently the closest Firehouse Subs to me - I hope they open another one close

 

[CJR]

I won't be shocked if many of these show up in Flamingo Crossings or off 192.

No reason to believe they won't relocate unless they were already heading the wrong direction as a business.