Oviedo awards construction contract to fix Mitchell Hammock ‘suicide lane’

Oviedo is set to kick off a nine-month-long construction project to keep drivers from having to play a game of chicken on one of the city’s busiest roads. The Oviedo City Council awarded the contract for safety improvements to the West Mitchell Hammock Road corridor during its July 20 meeting. 

The city will be widening West Mitchell Hammock Road from State Road 426 to just short of South Lake Jessup Ave., adding a 16-foot raised median and an eight-foot sidewalk on the north side of the street. 

The raised median would create three new designated left turning lanes to fix the current “suicide lane” in the middle of the road that spans almost the full length of that section of road.

“It’s essentially a lane that’s in the center of the road that can be used for left turns in both directions,” Oviedo Assistant Public Works Director Paul Yeargain said, “It’s called a suicide lane because they’re both using the same lane, so there’s a higher potential for head on collisions.” 

In addition to the safety improvements the work also includes milling and resurfacing of the road, minor utility work, signage, drainage and pavement improvements. 

The project has been in motion since 2018 when Oviedo’s design consultant provided recommendations for safety and access management improvements along the corridor as part of Oviedo’s Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2045. 

Oviedo’s Vision Zero Action Plan is part of a broader initiative partnering with MetroPlan Orlando, Seminole County and the Florida Department of Transportation. 

The plan identified the top-five intersections in Oviedo in terms of high injury and crash potential:

• Mitchell Hammock Road and South Norma Avenue
• S.R. 434 and Alafaya Woods Boulevard
• S.R. 434/South Central Avenue and Mitchell Hammock Road
• C.R. 419/Broadway Street and Avenue B
• S.R. 434/North Central Avenue and West Artesia Street

According to the Vision Zero Action Plan, Oviedo had 85 accidents that resulted in injuries between 2018-2022. Two of the 85 accidents were deadly, and 19 resulted in serious injury defined as injuries that require medical attention, including broken bones and severed limbs. 

The West Mitchell Hammock Road corridor had two serious injury crashes during that time and  received the highest priority score of all the projects in the Vision Zero Action Plan. 

Neither the City of Oviedo or MetroPlan Orlando have updated crash statistics in the time since the action plan was published.

“That was the data that created the need for the project,” Yeargain said. 

Southern Development and Construction Inc. had the winning bid for the Mitchell Hammock Road project at $3.47 million with an additional 10% cost contingency, bringing the total cost of the project to $3.82 million.

Oviedo will be paying $2.3 million pulled from the Third Generation One Cent Sales Tax, with the rest covered by a $1.5 million state-funded grant. 

Oviedo Mayor Megan Sladek pushed for accepting the grant when it came before the council in April, and now the city has some financial support for a project years in the making. 

“For the last 10 years everyone’s like, ‘Just pay for it,’” Sladek said, “I was like, ‘No way, this is not exclusively Oviedo’s problem. We wait until it’s bad enough that this state will chip in,’ and sure enough, they finally did it.” 

Oviedo City Council Member Alan Ott said while he was originally skeptical of the project’s price tag, making Oviedo’s streets safer is worth the cost. 

“I kind of questioned some of that stuff when it was brought up the first time,” Ott said, “It’s a lot of money but, you know, safety is one of those things that you kind of have to spend money on.”

Once construction starts, the plan is for West Mitchell Hammock Road to have all lanes open during the day with lane closures and detours between State Road 426 and South Lake Jessup Ave. to happen overnight.

While the improvements are meant to make drivers and pedestrians safer, it won’t make their commutes any shorter. 

“It won’t alleviate traffic,” Yeargain said, “We’re not increasing the capacity of the road, we’re not adding any new lanes or anything like that. This is purely a safety enhancement.” 

As of right now there is no set date for construction to begin, but Yeargin said now that the contract has been awarded by the Oviedo City Council it should start soon.

“Once we have them under contract and we have a notice to proceed from the Florida Department of Transportation, we’ll start construction,” Yeargain said, “Construction will take approximately nine months to complete.” 

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