Denning Drive project in Winter Park nears completion

A project that’s been reshaping one of Winter Park’s main roads since October 2017 is now on the home stretch. 

Work began earlier this month on the final major phase of the Denning Drive Multi-Use Trail Project, which has taken the four-lane road and reduced it to three lanes with an adjacent 10-foot-wide, multi-use trail on the east side.

Construction now is taking place from Canton Avenue up to Webster Avenue and is expected to be finished in about six weeks, Winter Park Public Works Director Troy Attaway said.

Traffic will be maintained and diverted into two single lanes, northbound and southbound, on the existing southbound lanes. During the last two weeks of the phase, that section of Denning Drive will be closed for the construction of the landscaped median islands, final curbing, installation of irrigation and sidewalks, and repaving of the road. 

Local residents and businesses will be able to access their properties as necessary.

The project has given Denning Drive a facelift from Orange Avenue up to Canton Avenue so far, and it’s been well-received by the community for the most part, Attaway said.

“I think the reaction to what we’ve done is very positive,” he said. “The one thing that we are working with the (Florida Department of Transportation) on is re-timing the light at Denning and Fairbanks. I think that that’s kind of the weak link in our wonderful project. The backups have been a little more than was anticipated, and we don’t control the timing. The DOT has to agree to any changes in timing, and they’ve agreed to re-study it and that study is underway right now. … We anticipate that we will have more green time for Denning, which will allow more cars to go through and prevent some of the backups that we’ve seen.”

The completed length of Denning Drive today features some tasteful landscaping with oak trees planted in the medians along the center lane. Attaway said last year the choice of landscaping and the narrowing of the road actually makes the street safer, because it makes motorists drive more slowly.

“You kind of drive whatever speed you feel comfortable at, regardless of what the speed limit says,” Attaway said. “Studies have confirmed that for many years — it’s kind of the comfort level. A big, wide road makes you feel comfortable going faster, and so by narrowing it down, we feel like subconsciously you’re going to look at it and go, ‘It’s a little tight or narrow, I’m going to go slower.’”

Attaway said he’s seen firsthand that traffic is going slower and that the city plans to place traffic counters along the road to collect data at some point within the next six months.

Once the major work on Denning Drive is complete in about six weeks, work will begin on two smaller phases of the project: adding wider, 8-foot-wide sidewalks along the west side of Denning Drive from Webster Avenue through Solana Avenue and along the north side of Webster Avenue from Denning Drive to the Lee Road extension.

Neither of those phases will affect driving lanes, Attaway said.