Road changes may be coming for Winter Springs

As Winter Springs continues to fix roads in the wake of hurricanes Ian and Nicole, other changes and updates are possibly coming to a roadway near you.

Drivers may have to watch their speed on State Road 434 throughout Winter Springs, because the Florida Department of Transportation is considering the city’s request to reduce the speed limit to 45 mph on S.R. 434 throughout the city.

Currently portions of the city’s main artery, S.R. 434, have among the highest speed limits for non-freeway roads in the Oviedo/Winter Springs area. Beginning at where S.R. 434 intersects S.R. 419 and heading east to Central Winds Park the road has a 50 mph speed limit. That limit drops to 45 mph as the road passes through the Winter Springs Town Center area, but then, as it crosses Tuskawilla Road, the speed limit jumps back up to 50 mph where that limit continues until it intersects S.R. 417.

After prompting from city engineer Philip Hursh, Winter Springs commissioners agreed with the idea that the road, which frequently sees police pulling over speeders, should have a uniform speed limit.

“I would like to see the speed limit 45 mph from east to west, on the entire length of State Route 434, because they speed like crazy from the Greeneway, they slow down, they get just beyond City Hall and Central Winds Park and then they speed like crazy because the speed limit jumps back up to 50 mph again, then they slow down at the 419,” Commissioner Ted Johnson said.

Commissioner Rob Elliott wondered how the change would affect police enforcement of the area.

“It shouldn’t be much of an impact… it’ll increase the amount of speeding tickets that we write for sure,” Police Chief Matt Tracht said of the potential result of lowering the speed limit

“It’ll keep us in business,” Tracht added.

The Commission voted unanimously to transmit the request to FDOT. FDOT traffic operations engineer Jim Wood informed the city on Tuesday that the state will be conducting a speed zone study.

“They certainly have very significant standards that have to be met,” Mayor Kevin McCann said.

New stop in Winter Springs

Be on the lookout for a new traffic signal along S.R. 434 where the road intersects Michael Blake Boulevard at the Starbucks coffee shop.

“We’re hoping to have a traffic light installed there in the next six months,” McCann said. “Just trying to make things safer.”