Florida lands $85 million federal grant to widen 20 miles of I-4 in Seminole and Volusia counties

Florida will receive an $85 million federal grant to widen a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 4 through Seminole and Volusia counties, one of the most congested corridors in Central Florida, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Oct. 1. The money will help the Florida Department of Transportation add one general-purpose lane in each direction between State Road 434 in Longwood and State Road 472 in Volusia County, a run of highway that includes the chronically jammed I-4 bridge over the St. Johns River.

The award came through the federal Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program, known as INFRA, as part of a $426 million round of grants spread across 12 states. What the announcement did not include is a construction start date. Neither the federal agency nor FDOT has published a public schedule for when drivers between Longwood, Sanford, DeBary and Orange City might notice a difference, and local television stations that asked the state agency for a timeline said they were still waiting for answers.

What the money pays for

According to the federal description of the project, the grant will fund construction of a general-use lane in each direction along approximately 20 miles of I-4 between State Road 434 and State Road 472. Coverage of the award by FOX 35 Orlando said the work also includes milling, resurfacing and restriping the interstate, upgrading intelligent transportation systems, enhancing fiber infrastructure and making drainage improvements. WKMG News 6 reported that the project includes work on the St. Johns River bridge, the span that carries I-4 between Seminole and Volusia counties.

Federal officials framed the project as a freight investment. The department said the new lanes will expand freight capacity and relieve a bottleneck on a corridor heavily used by commercial trucks, and that the project is expected to reduce travel delays and lower vehicle operating costs over the next 20 years.

FDOT has said the corridor is already over capacity, even with the express lanes already in place farther south, according to a report by WFTV Channel 9.

Part of a $426 million national round

The Florida award is one of the larger grants in the round. Besides Florida, the states receiving money include California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Wyoming. Coverage of the announcement identified no other Florida project in the round. Several of the awards named in the federal announcement are shown below.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy cast the round as a shift away from passenger rail spending. "America's infrastructure is rated a C. Instead of wasting federal dollars on trains to nowhere, President Trump is investing in desperately-needed infrastructure upgrades that will enhance the way people and projects move," Duffy said in the announcement, as quoted by FOX 35.

Why this stretch of I-4

The grant targets the section of I-4 just north of the area rebuilt during the I-4 Ultimate project. That $2.3 billion overhaul, measured in year-of-expenditure dollars, reconstructed 21 miles of the interstate from State Road 435 near Kirkman Road in Orlando to State Road 434 in Longwood. It added four variable-toll express lanes, reconfigured 15 major interchanges and was completed on Feb. 26, 2022.

North of Longwood, the interstate loses its express lanes and funnels traffic toward Sanford, Lake Mary, the St. Johns River crossing and the growing suburbs of southwest Volusia County. FDOT's follow-on program, called I-4 Beyond the Ultimate, divides the remaining work into segments. The two northern segments run from State Road 434 to U.S. 17-92 and from U.S. 17-92 to State Road 472, together matching the limits named in the grant.

The plan for that area has shifted over time. An earlier study from 2016 and 2017 targeted completion by 2020 and considered adding express lanes, but the work was delayed by rising costs and limited funding, WKMG reported in April 2025. At that time FDOT was re-evaluating the St. Johns River bridge project using 2022 traffic data, with a possible opening year of 2030 and designs meant to handle peak demand through 2050. The federal grant now describes the work as general-use lanes rather than express lanes.

Local leaders pushed for the bridge

Seminole County commissioners spent much of 2025 urging the state to move the river crossing up its priority list. In April 2025, Commission Chairman Jay Zembower said he planned to sign a resolution asking FDOT to prioritize the bridge project, and Volusia County pursued similar action, according to WKMG. Zembower warned at the time that the longer the county waited, the more restricted that roadway would become.

Seminole County has added more than 85,000 residents since 2005 and expects to reach about 560,100 people by 2045, a 13 percent increase, according to the same report. County leaders said then that they planned to press federal partners and members of Congress for additional funding to speed the project along.

What drivers say

Commuters interviewed by Orlando television stations described a daily crawl through the corridor. "Bumper to bumper, we're going like ten, 12, 25 miles per hour," driver Kevin Little told WKMG. Mary DiDonato told the station her drive from DeBary to downtown Orlando once took 35 minutes and now can take 45 minutes to an hour, and sometimes an hour and 15 minutes.

Others were skeptical that one added lane would be enough. Driver Carlos Mejia told WFTV that the change would help for a little while but that population growth would eventually bring the congestion back. He blamed the design of an on-ramp that merges onto the bridge for much of the backup.

Cost and timeline questions

The $85 million federal share covers only part of what the full widening will cost. An earlier MetroPlan Orlando planning document estimated design and construction for the State Road 434 to State Road 472 work at about $572 million and put the cost of the full I-4 Beyond the Ultimate program at about $1.85 billion, though those figures predate the current re-evaluation and FDOT has not released an updated estimate tied to the grant. FDOT also has not said how it will cover the balance or whether the grant will let it advance construction earlier than planned.

INFRA grants typically require recipients to sign a grant agreement with the federal government before money flows, and the state must still complete design work and any right-of-way acquisition before major construction can begin.

What's next

FDOT is expected to fold the federal money into its Central Florida work program and announce a construction schedule for the segment. WKMG and WFTV both said they had asked the agency when work would start and when drivers could expect relief, and would report the answers when they arrive. Until then, commuters on the Seminole and Volusia stretch of I-4 have a funding commitment but no date for new lanes.