Universal Orlando Resort Expansion News (Part 2)

[Magic-Man]

Doesn't help that the roads to get to it won't be done until 2025 either. Green light for Kirkman Road extension that promises to create jobs, new developments - Orlando Sentinel

I've learned from watching road construction near my house for the past ten or so years that these things always get done ahead of time. If they need a road to get to the park, it will be there before 2025.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I'm not currently in that camp but I think 2024 is a better guess than 2022.

I’m updating my guesstimate to early 2023.

 

[Magic-Man]

I’m updating my guesstimate to early 2023.

I'm gonna guess and say that it'll open Memorial Day weekend.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

2023 seems ideal. Lot's of infrastructure to do both at the new and old resorts.

 

[Nick]

I've learned from watching road construction near my house for the past ten or so years that these things always get done ahead of time. If they need a road to get to the park, it will be there before 2025.

You don't live in Orlando, do you...

 

[natespf]

To be fair a lot of it is starting from scratch. What stretches it out a lot is the dilemma of keeping a road open while ripping it out and redoing it at the same time.

 

[Nick]

To be fair a lot of it is starting from scratch. What stretches it out a lot is the dilemma of keeping a road open while ripping it out and redoing it at the same time.

And how much the road is needed for both locals and tourists to get to their destination. So it's not like they can just close up shop completely. This is a highly used road.

 

[JungleSkip]

You don't live in Orlando, do you...

If Comcast wants the park open in 2023 and the road is lagging behind, I would not be surprised to see them push things along if needed

 

[natespf]

And how much the road is needed for both locals and tourists to get to their destination. So it's not like they can just close up shop completely. This is a highly used road.

I meant for the extension, which is a bulk of the project. North of that they will need to work around traffic. Though with the layout some of that can be done without affecting existing traffic, but it still does take more time to get it all done.

 

[Nick]

If Comcast wants the park open in 2023 and the road is lagging behind, I would not be surprised to see them push things along if needed

I mean, i'm sure they might try, and maybe the County/City will try to push things a bit since Universal will be generating a lot of revenue into this area, but when it comes to dealing with city run projects, there's only so much Comcast can do. Especially since they came in at the last minute and forced them to change their original plan.

 

[fryoj]

Really, the Kirkman extension construction shouldn't affect local traffic too heavily. The cutout from Universal blvd on the south side is already done, so there will be no traffic impact there. Between there and Sand Lake you'll have a little bit of disruption for Lockheed and the substation, but thats very little. Hell even on the North side, the Sand Lake bridges look like they were built with the plan to have extra lanes going underneath. It may need a bridge added for the interchange. Honestly, theres no reason they couldn't do that whole extension construction in a year unless they are going to redo the Sand Lake/Kirkman spaghetti bowl.

Is there a map of the extension plan online?

 

[natespf]

Really, the Kirkman extension construction shouldn't affect local traffic too heavily. The cutout from Universal blvd on the south side is already done, so there will be no traffic impact there. Between there and Sand Lake you'll have a little bit of disruption for Lockheed and the substation, but thats very little. Hell even on the North side, the Sand Lake bridges look like they were built with the plan to have extra lanes going underneath. It may need a bridge added for the interchange. Honestly, theres no reason they couldn't do that whole extension construction in a year unless they are going to redo the Sand Lake/Kirkman spaghetti bowl.

Is there a map of the extension plan online?

There were some overviews posted long ago. The northern bridges are to be used but widened, this can be done while traffic still uses them.

Universal Orlando Resort Expansion (Part 1) | Page 408 | Inside Universal Forums

 

[Nick]

There were some overviews posted long ago. The northern bridges are to be used but widened, this can be done while traffic still uses them.

Universal Orlando Resort Expansion (Part 1) | Page 408 | Inside Universal Forums

Yup. This post is the most informative:

The documents for this meeting have already been published. There's several thousands of pages of studies and data for each section of the extension project - North and Middle - but the section that cuts through the Universal land is the Middle section. I've briefly skimmed its 2196 page report and included some of the interesting tidbits below:





Here are the two alternatives for the combined North and Middle sections of the project. They are basically the same, with the main difference being the access ramp and overpass from Lockheed to northbound Kirkman.

ALT 1 (Preferred)

ALT 2

And lastly, here's a landscaping plan of the surrounding pedestrian trails that also happens to show a bit more of the planned access into/through the Universal property from the new Kirkman intersection to the Destination Parkway intersection:

Access:

 

[fryoj]

It's a little more involved than I thought, but still not a huge traffic disruption. They'll likely build the new East bound lanes and Bridges for Sand Lake first. Then they will move West bound traffic to those lanes while they tear down the West bound bridges and rebuild them. Once those are done, they can put Sand lake traffic on it's new routes and build the Kirkman part of the interchange. In the meantime, they can be building the rest of the Kirkman extension to Universal Blvd. Theres a couple bridges and the roundabout that will take some time though. Regardless though, they can knock this out in less than 2 years from the time they say go.

 

[natespf]

Though I believe there's been some slight changes to the plans since then, you can still see a lot of it can be done out of the way of traffic.

It's a little more involved than I thought, but still not a huge traffic disruption. They'll likely build the new East bound lanes and Bridges for Sand Lake first. Then they will move West bound traffic to those lanes while they tear down the West bound bridges and rebuild them. Once those are done, they can put Sand lake traffic on it's new routes and build the Kirkman part of the interchange. In the meantime, they can be building the rest of the Kirkman extension to Universal Blvd. Theres a couple bridges and the roundabout that will take some time though. Regardless though, they can knock this out in less than 2 years from the time they say go.

East bound and west bound are to use the same overpasses, which are currently just the east bound but widened.

 

[Happytycho]

Though I believe there's been some slight changes to the plans since then, you can still see a lot of it can be done out of the way of traffic.

East bound and west bound are to use the same overpasses, which are currently just the east bound but widened.

The plans that were shared in the old thread show completely new bridges, which are located slightly east of the current ones. Has that changed?

 

[fryoj]

Though I believe there's been some slight changes to the plans since then, you can still see a lot of it can be done out of the way of traffic.



East bound and west bound are to use the same overpasses, which are currently just the east bound but widened.

Take a look at the Google street view and aerials of the bridges there. I can't imagine them reusing those bridges. Especially not with the intersection shown in the plans quoted above.

 

[natespf]

I meant westbound, they can skip a step because nothing is going back where eastbound currently is. Still done in steps so there's always a place for traffic. But it's all going to the north where westbound currently is, with wider overpasses.

 

[fryoj]

I meant westbound, they can skip a step because nothing is going back where eastbound currently is. Still done in steps so there's always a place for traffic. But it's all going to the north where westbound currently is, with wider overpasses.

Yeah, I figured you meant Eastbound. But the Eastbound overpasses can't handle the interchange they are showing in the plans.

 

[OLSinFLA]

And how much the road is needed for both locals and tourists to get to their destination. So it's not like they can just close up shop completely. This is a highly used road.

I remember when Universal's entrance was on Kirkman... not exactly an unused road...