Maitland traffic changes trouble Thanksgiving travel

Heads up if you have family driving into Maitland to gobble up some Thanksgiving goodness this week: Don’t let them trust their GPS.

Traffic pattern changes have been so rampant at the Maitland Boulevard and Interstate 4 interchange that Google Maps can’t keep up. It can take up to 30 days for traffic changes to register on GPS, said Florida Department of Transportation spokesperson Jessica Ottaviano, and the most recent pattern change happened less than a week ago. That means good-old word-of-mouth or scratched-out-on-paper directions could be the way to go to get Thanksgiving dinners to the table on time.

“If you have family coming into town, it’s important to let them know,” Ottaviano said.

But study the maps – found at fdot.tips/WBI4entrance and fdot.tips/EB414exit – yourself first. If you haven’t traveled the interchange in the past two weeks, exits may not be in the same place you left them.

This week, the entrance ramp from westbound Maitland Boulevard onto westbound I-4 is on the opposite side of the road as it was before. Drivers used to loop onto the highway from the right lane. Now, a new temporary traffic signal has been installed with two left-hand turn lanes that take you to a ramp onto I-4.

“This is a big deal because people were used to accessing it on the other side of the road,” Ottaviano said. “There is an adjustment that drivers have to go through here.”

This traffic pattern, she said, is expected to stay in effect for at least a year, so drivers can get used to veering to the left to access the interstate.

Earlier this month, a new permanent ramp opened for drivers coming from westbound Maitland Boulevard looking to head eastbound on I-4. That ramp is roughly 600 feet before the I-4 overpass on the right.

For drivers on I-4 westbound, there’s also a change in the exit location for Maitland Boulevard. This week a new exit ramp for those traveling on westbound I-4 getting off on Maitland Boulevard opened roughly 600 feet beyond the previous exit. The old exit remains open, Ottaviano said, but now only allows drivers who get off there to travel westbound on Maitland Boulevard. Drivers on I-4 looking to head east on Maitland Boulevard will need to stay on I-4 a bit longer and take the new exit, which is just after the Maitland Boulevard bridge over I-4.

For those on I-4 Eastbound looking to exit at Maitland Boulevard, exits remain the same – for now.

According to FDOT, two more traffic shifts are scheduled for the Maitland Boulevard/I-4 interchange in early December.

All of the changes are part of the ongoing $2.3 billion Ultimate I-4 project, which is overhauling 21 miles of the interstate from west of Kirkman Road to East of State Road 434 in Longwood. Ottaviano said the anticipated completion date for the construction at the Maitland Boulevard interchange is in 2018.

“There is a lot of work to get done in this time frame,” she said.

The Maitland Boulevard interchange is going through one of the most noticeable makeovers during Ultimate I-4 construction, she said. Maitland Boulevard is being elevated, and having new ramps added and traffic signals eliminated.

By the end, she said, drivers will have none of the same traffic movement patterns at the interchange that they had before construction.