page_title: Orchard Pond Parkway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Orchard Pond Parkway / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Orchard Pond Parkway, located north of Tallahassee, Florida.
context_page_description: The Orchard Pond Parkway, also known as County Road 0344, is a privately built, two-lane toll road, covering a distance of 5.2 miles in the northern part of Leon County, Florida, acting as a partial bypass of Tallahassee and providing the only connection north of Interstate 10 between the northeastern and northwestern parts of the city. Replacing a dirt road that formerly covered the route, it opened in 2016; using open road tolling, it is considered to be the first privately built toll road to be constructed in the state of Florida. A multi-use trail parallels the road along the old dirt roadway.
context_section_description: The first privately built toll road to be constructed in Florida, and the first toll road built in Leon County, Florida, construction of the Orchard Pond Parkway was begun in January 2015. The projected completion date was January 2016, although the project was delayed by several months. Constructed by Jeff Phipps, owner of Orchard Pond Plantation, the route was handed over to the Leon County government upon completion, to be leased back to the constructor over a 99-year term with the lease fees acting as payment for the route. The cost of the project was approximately $17 million, $13.5 million of which was provided as a loan from the Florida Department of Transportation Infrastructure Bank; 45,000 short tons (41,000 t) of recycled concrete was used during the construction of the roadway.
  The Orchard Pond Parkway opened on April 18, 2016; as an introductory measure to encourage local drivers to familiarize themselves with the route, tolls were not collected until May 1. Following that date, open road tolling using the Florida Department of Transportation's SunPass system was instituted, with toll-by-plate as an option for drivers without a SunPass transponder. Traffic volumes for the road were projected to rise to 2000 cars per day; the highest recorded daily traffic count in the first ten months of operation, following the imposition of tolls, was 1800 cars.
  The route is considered to be an example for potential future projects to follow, being described as the first step in "a new Capital Circle", providing a bypass for truck traffic to the north of Tallahassee to match the existing partial beltway to the south of the city, reducing traffic congestion and improving safety in the city's busy downtown area, through which a truck route currently passes.
caption: Orchard Pond Parkway route marker
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