WINTER PARK, Fla. – The Florida Department of Transportation announced major changes could be coming to a stretch of Orange Avenue, where neighbors have expressed concern about the number of speeders and crashes.
The announcement came on Tuesday night at an Orwin Manor community meeting designed to talk about speeders.
A representative from FDOT announced to the room that the agency has secured $1.9 million in funding from the Federal Highway Administration.
Residents began a campaign to get drivers to slow down after two women were killed in a crash at the intersection of Orange and Westchester avenues on New Years Eve 2017.
As of right now, he said the money would be used to create a traffic circle at the corner of Orange and Clay avenues in Orlando, reduce Orange Avenue to one lane in each direction as it heads north into Winter Park and implement two left turn lanes at the corner of Orlando Avenue.
"I'm thrilled that we're making some progress," said Garrick Spears, one of the Orwin Manor residents who has been trying to get drivers to slow down.
Spears created signs, asking drivers to slow down, that some neighbors placed in their yards.
"It's about making our neighborhood safer and even for those driving through the neighborhood," he said. "No solution is going to fit everybody's needs and wants, but I think this addresses the majority of them."
FDOT said designers will begin their work on the project in July and public input meetings will probably being scheduled for 2021.