For years, the complaints have repeated like a broken record — or a broken fender in a crash: “Fix the intersection of John Young Parkway and Pleasant Hill Road.”
The Florida Department of Transportation has heard those complaints all these years, and now has the plans and the funding to move forward, as an FDOT project administrator told the Osceola County Commission Monday.
The improvements center around two pieces. The first would carve a “quad road” of four lanes with a median through a wooded northern portion of The Oaks, allowing traffic turning south onto Pleasant Hill to free flow and limit John Young congestion. It would preserve significant mature trees along the way and include tree buffers where possible.
The other piece involves eastbound John Young flyover ramps over the start of that road and Pleasant Hill.
The whole goal is to reduce congestion and crash rates, improve business and residential access in the area and enhance bicycle and pedestrian connectivity.
“FDOT is working with the community and city on this project,” District 5 Project Development Administrator Steven Buck said Monday. “This intersection improvement is very important. The project had been held back because that area’s traffic growth is extreme, and data engineers haven’t been able to get ahold of the proper data.”
Buck called the intersection a “pinch point,” with lots of points in the middle where turning traffic crosses. The plan re-routes dangerous leftturning traffic, especially that turning south on Pleasant Hill.
Buck said the quad road would create a “nontraditional intersection,” but with projections of the intersection getting another 40% increase in traffic by 2045, a new solution is needed.
“The design is for more than we would possibly need,” Buck said. “The majority of the response we’ve gotten is, ‘Just fix it.’ And now we have funding for design and construction.”
Per FDOT, the construction is funded for the 2027 fiscal year. Design will be complete in 2024, and the right of way acquired by 2025. (Keep in mind, the original Project Development and Environment study on this intersection was completed in 2009.)
Future phase includes six-laning John Young from Pleasant Hill northeast to Portage Street near downtown Kissimmee.
A previously-pitched solution a few years ago included a reversible contra-flow flyover that connected westbound John Young and southbound Pleasant Hill and vice versa to add capacity to directions needed at certain times of day. But, Commissioner Brandon Arrington, whose district 3 includes the intersection, said it would have been obsolete by the time it was built due to the area’s drastic growth.
“I’ve been working with FDOT on this for ... ever,” Arrington said, noting he hoped for a design that doesn’t create any additional choke points. “I’m glad the community’s on board and that we’re ready to move forward.”
Commission Chairman Viviana Janer said commissioners across the county, “Appreciate it and want to see this fixed for our community.”
