ORLANDO, Fla. — Michelle Franklin says the southbound State Road 417 toll plaza near Boggy Creek Road gets slammed in the afternoon, causing backups.

  • Drivers say congestion at SR 417 toll plaza is dangerous
  • CFX says it's seen capacity double in past 5 years alone
  • Get more Traffic Inbox coverage

Another driver, Alanis Davila, manager at Mondo Pet USA off Landstar Boulevard, experiences the same dangers on a regular basis.

"It's scary, because you don't know how the person behind is going to come driving by or the person in front of you is going to stop immediately. You just don't have a chance to pull away or step on the brakes yourself," Davila said.

She's talking about the so-called "open road tolling" lanes, which help drivers bypass the cash lanes of the toll plaza. As traffic merges back from the cash lanes, it creates a choking point and can cause traffic delays in the main two lanes of southbound S.R. 417.

Because of her store's location, Davila travels on that stretch of S.R. 417 during peak times every day.

"Compared to how it was when I first moved here, compared to how it is now, it's gotten really hectic — really crazy," she said.

Davila says that backup can be dangerous — her stepfather was recently hit by a vehicle near the toll plaza attempting to merge from the cash lanes.

"His car was just a complete, total wreck. The door was budged inside the car. It was really scary. Thank God he's OK. Nothing harmful happened to him, but the car was a complete loss,” she said.

The Central Florida Expressway Authority told us this stretch of S.R. 417 between Boggy Creek Road and Landstar Boulevard is one of the areas where it's seen the capacity double in the past five years alone.

But good news is on the way. CFX is planning to add an additional open road tolling lane in each direction as part of an upcoming widening project from Boggy Creek to Landstar.

The design work for the widening project should be completely early 2020.  So construction would not begin until later half of 2020.

(Editor's note: CFX misspoke and originally stated the design work would be completed by this December and the actual work would start in the first half of 2020. However, that is not the case and the above sentence reflex the correction.)

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