Construction on State Road 426 began last year after being postponed for two years due to COVID-19. Though it will be beneficial to have safer roads, civilians are growing irritated with how the process is affecting them. The traffic has gotten worse, roadside lights are out of business, and power has become increasingly unreliable.

One of the issues the construction introduces is the power failing. With the amount of people all relying on one power source, it causes it to falter, and eventually die off completely. When the power source is finally gone, it interrupts the lives of working students and faculty.

“It does get a little scary in the morning because there’s almost no lights on that road,” said teacher Victoria Huffman. “It feels like a little go-kart track. It does this really sharp turn and then when I have to get into the turn lane, I feel like I’m really close to the cars coming in the opposite direction. It always makes me a little nervous.”

While some people are focusing on the problems it’s causing, others are looking towards the future and how the construction will be a positive change for the community.

“The construction will add more lanes, which will increase the flow of traffic and help people get to where they need to go faster,” said parent Louis Kessler.

With construction workers either destroying sidewalks completely, or using them to keep all of their equipment, walkers and bikers are facing a much more dangerous route.

“There aren’t many sidewalks anymore, which means it’s kind of risky to be biking everywhere because I don’t want to get run over,” said freshman Kaden Borer.

So far, there have been three confirmed phases of the construction plans. Phase one, which was addressing downtown and improving intersections, has already been completed. Phase two is what is currently under construction, and the main goal is to fully reconstruct SR 426 and CR 419 from Pine Avenue to Adeline B Tinsley Way.

Part of phase two is to improve the milling, lighting, drainage structures, resurfacing, retention ponds, signing and pavement markings, signalization, hardscape, and much more. 

As soon as phase two is finished, we can move onto phase three. Phase three is the final phase and will connect the product of phase two to the intersection on Lockwood Boulevard. Once this is finished, the lives of Oviedo residents will be back to normal – and maybe even better.