Florida: $14.4B Investment in Highways and Transportation, from Tampa to Orlando

Florida is growing rapidly, placing increasing demands on a transportation network that must address existing capacity constraints and growing mobility needs while supporting continued population, tourism, freight, and economic growth.

For the 2026-2027 fiscal year, the state has allocated $14.4 billion to the Transportation Work Program—the program through which the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) funds the construction, maintenance, and modernization of the transportation network.

Nearly $4.9 billion is earmarked for highway construction and maintenance, while an additional $1.4 billion will finance the resurfacing of more than 2,600 lane miles. Added to these investments are the resources earmarked for ports and airports, but the true horizon extends even further.

Indeed, since July 2026, the new cycle of the Five-Year Work Program 2027-2031 came into effect, through which FDOT schedules interventions over the next five years for roads, bridges, public transit, railways, airports, seaports, and freight infrastructure.

Few pieces of infrastructure reflect the state’s development quite like Interstate 4—the highway traversing Central Florida from Tampa to Daytona Beach through Orlando, connecting rapidly expanding metropolitan areas, major commercial districts, and one of the highest concentrations of tourism in the world.

To enhance mobility along this critical corridor, FDOT launched “Moving I-4 Forward,” a program focused on  addressing current transportation needs while advancing improvements that support Central Florida’s continued growth.

In April 2026, Lane was awarded a modified phased design build contract for the Moving I-4 Forward-Project 2. The project covers 3.1 miles (4.99 kilometers) between County Road 532 and World Drive in the ChampionsGate area, encompassing highway widening, two new express lanes in each direction, and the reconfiguration of the interchange with State Road 429.

In the Orlando area, Lane is also working on the I-4/Sand Lake Road interchange—a design build project that widens the interstate and converts the existing interchange into a Diverging Diamond Interchange, and I-4/SR 535, another design build project that is transforming one of the main gateways to Walt Disney World and the surrounding hotel and tourism district, used every day by more than 150,000 vehicles.

These projects, taken together with other ongoing work reveals something greater than the modernization of individual interchanges: they  show how Florida is committed to rebuilding its primary east-west artery for the mobility needs of the coming decades.

However, the pressure on Central Florida’s road network does not end at Interstate 4.

To the north and east of Orlando, Lane is also engaged in the widening of the Seminole Expressway/SR 417, one of the main alternative route to I-4 and an essential component of the highway system surrounding the city. This design build project expands a six-mile (8 km) section of SR 417 from four to eight lanes, as well as upgrading bridges and interchanges.

SR 417 serves a function that carries exceptional importance in Florida: it is a designated hurricane evacuation route. This highlights another key element of the state’s infrastructure strategy—a modern highway network must handle daily population growth, but it must also provide capacity and reliability during emergency situations when millions of residents may need to move rapidly away from vulnerable coastal areas.

Approximately 80 miles west of Orlando, Tampa is also undergoing a profound transformation of its transportation network. Lane is advancing major interchange improvements on I-275 and I-4, including the reconstruction of key connections serving downtown Tampa, Tampa International Airport, and the Westshore Business District.

The Downtown Tampa Interchange and Westshore Interchange projects are designed to increase capacity, improve traffic flow, and strengthen connectivity across one of Florida’s busiest metropolitan areas.

From the Turnpike to I-75, tourism and freight traffic coexist on the same road network. On Florida’s Turnpike, Lane has completed a $233 million project that reconstructed and widened seven miles (11 km) of the highway near Minneola, expanding the roadway from four to eight lanes.

Farther north, in the Ocala region, a design build project is upgrading Interstate 75—one of the major north-south corridors in the Southeastern United States. The project includes new lanes, a new interchange, bridges, and upgrades to existing interchanges, while also enhancing access to the logistics hubs and distribution centers that have expanded around Ocala.

Like many of Florida’s major highways, Interstate 75 performs two functions at once: it is both a freight corridor and a hurricane evacuation route.

Florida’s transportation challenge is to address the mobility pressures of today while creating the capacity, connectivity, and resilience required for continued growth. From Interstate 4, and Florida’s Turnpike to Interstate 75 and Tampa’s major interchanges, these investments are strengthening the network that supports Florida’s communities, economy, tourism, freight movement, and emergency mobility.