Lake/Orange County Connector

This project was processed as a State Environmental Impact Report (SEIR) and involved a new roadway corridor. It began with an extensive Alternative Corridor Evaluation process covering a massive area between US 27 and SR 429, in Lake and Orange Counties. Once a single, broad corridor was selected, Metric conducted extensive field surveys to establish an environmental baseline. Alternatives were overlain onto that environmental baseline to calculate impacts, and those impacts were populated into a scoring matrix so that various alternatives could be compared. Avoiding impacts to Lake Louisa State Park and a tract of land purchased with Florida Forever funds were major considerations in the development of alternatives. Research and field surveys revealed high-quality wetlands and multiple listed species in the project area, along with two former landfills and a site once declared an imminent hazard to public health due to illegal dumping of chemicals. This project involved a major interchange with US 27 as well as a bridge spanning interconnected wetlands and would provide a much-needed connection in this rapidly growing area of central Florida. Metric’s environmental staff were also on the team awarded the design and permitting contract of Segment 2 of the Lake Orange Connector.