More than 220 people attended a public meeting open house on April 29, 2014 conducted by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)  to review the latest preliminary design plans for Wekiva Parkway Sections 5 & 6 in Lake County and a small portion of Seminole County. The meeting at Camp Challenge, 31600 Camp Challenge Road in Sorrento, also resulted in 13 people submitting written comments. The project is funded for construction in 2017. 

Among those attending were property owners, realtors, attorneys, environmental advocates, and local officials including Mike Wood of the Lake-Sumter MPO, Lake County Public Works Director Jim Stivender and Lake County Engineer Fred Schneider. Media coverage of the public meeting included the Orlando Sentinel and CFN13.

The Section 5 project is to design the non-tolled relocation of County Road (CR) 46A out of the Seminole State Forest, thereby improving habitat connectivity and reducing the risk of conflicts between vehicles and wildlife. CR 46A would be realigned 2.5 miles from north of Arundel Way to connect to State Road (SR) 429 east of Camp Challenge Road.

The Section 6 project is to design 5.5 miles of limited access toll road largely along the existing SR 46 corridor from west of Old MacDonald Road to east of Wekiva Park Road. The project will include designing a non-tolled, service road for local travel and a new bridge over the Wekiva River. This section also will feature several wildlife bridges to allow animals to pass safely between the Seminole State Forest and Rock Springs Run State Reserve, as well as a multi-use path.

To view photos from the meeting, click here.

To view exhibits and handouts from the public meeting, click here.