Residents, property owners, and business owners along the Canoe Creek Road corridor attended a final Project Development and Environment (PD&E) Study meeting at the St. Cloud Community Center last Tuesday night. The PD&E study has been underway since July 2023, focused on widening and other improvements along a 4.65-mile segment of Canoe Creek Road from Deer Run Road to U.S. Highway 192.
Two sets of tables placed end to end displayed long maps of the corridor with the proposed improvements alternative superimposed over aerial photographs. In addition, numerous display boards were placed around the edges of the Community Center with specific information, aspects, and features of the proposed improvements to Canoe Creek Road. Osceola County officials also made a formal presentation.
During the display time representatives from Osceola County’s transportation planning staff, consultants from the county’s planning and engineering firm RS&H, and City of St. Cloud staff were available for questions.
The study was conducted in partnership with the City of St. Cloud and evaluated widening the existing two-lane roadway to a four-lane divided urban roadway. In addition, multi-modal transportation improvements including continuous sidewalks/paths and buffered bicycle lanes were evaluated. From 2017-2021, 550 collisions occurred on the corridor, six involving pedestrians with one fatality, and four bicycle crashes with another fatality.
The current proposed “build alternative” is little changed from the initial plan proposed in the summer of 2023. Major intersection improvements at Old Canoe Creek and Nolte Roads, and at U.S 192, are planned. Limited intersection improvements and the addition of traffic signals at three locations along Canoe Creek Road are also proposed at Settlers Trail, Creek Woods Drive, and Portofino Vista Boulevard, just south of Pine Tree Drive.
Residents attending the meeting expressed that the widening should continue further south, considering all the residential development already coming south of Deer Run Road, to eliminate a future bottleneck. Another stated that there was no real need for a continuous divided median along most of the road and cited the potential for accidents from frequent U-turns and the cost savings to the project.
The total project cost, with all of the desired improvements, will be over $150 million. Previously the county stated that Canoe Creek Road was one of two top-two priorities, along with Old Lake Wilson Road on the west side of the county, as far as projects that can be completed with federal funds. Currently, the full design of the project is funded for Fiscal Year 2026, however, Right of Way acquisition and construction costs have not been fully funded.
After the public comment period closes on Nov. 22, the Board of Osceola County Commissioners will consider the completed study for approval sometime very early in 2025.
For more information on the Canoe Creek Road improvements project, go to https://bit.ly/4fSLGDI.
