page_title: Interstate 4
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Interstate 4 / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Interstate 4 east at exits 111A-B. Taken July 27, 2003 by User:SPUI.
context_page_description: Interstate 4 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. Spanning 132.298 miles along a generally southwest–northeast axis, I-4 is entirely concurrent with State Road 400. In the west, they begin at an interchange with I-275 in Tampa. They intersect with several major expressways as they traverse Central Florida, including US 41 in Tampa; US 301 near Riverview; I-75 near Brandon; US 98 in Lakeland; US 192 in Celebration; Florida's Turnpike in Orlando; and US 17 and US 92 in multiple junctions. In the east, I-4 ends at an interchange with I-95 in Daytona Beach, while SR 400 continues for roughly another 4 miles and ends at an intersection with US 1 on the city line of Daytona Beach and South Daytona.
  Construction on I-4 began in 1958; the first segment opened in 1959, and the entire highway was completed in 1965. The "I-4 Ultimate" project, currently in progress, will oversee the construction of variable-toll express lanes and numerous redevelopments through the 21-mile stretch of highway extending from Kirkman Road in Orlando to SR 434 in Longwood.
context_section_description: I-4 was one of the first Interstate Highways to be constructed in Florida, with the first section opening between Plant City and Lakeland in 1959. By early 1960, the Howard Frankland Bridge was opened to traffic, as well as the segment from the Hillsborough Avenue/US 301 junction in Tampa to Plant City. The stretch from Lake Monroe to Lake Helen, including the original St. Johns River Bridge also opened during that period. The segment from Tampa to Orlando was complete by 1962. By the mid 1960s, several segments were already complete, including Malfunction Junction in Tampa and parts of I-4 through Orlando. The original western terminus was set at Central Avenue (County Road 150) in St. Petersburg, though a non-Interstate extension would have continued south and west to Pasadena. Proposed I-4 was later extended southwest to the present location of I-275 exit 20, with a planned temporary end at US 19 and 13th Avenue South, and a continuation to the Sunshine Skyway was also designated as part of Interstate 4. Construction was stalled at 9th Street North (CR 803) for several years.
  The entire Interstate Highway was completed by the late 1960s; however, the western terminus was truncated to Malfunction Junction in 1971 when I-75 was extended over the Frankland Bridge. Eventually, that stretch was again redesignated to become part of I-275.
  In maps and atlases dating to the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, the Tampa–St. Petersburg section of I-4/I-275 was marked as the Tampa Expressway. The Orlando segment was marked as the Orlando Expressway. Both names have since faded from maps.
  Although many post-1970 interchanges along I-4 were constructed before the recent widening projects, they were designed with I-4 expansion in mind. In other words, there is enough room available to widen I-4 to up to ten lanes without extensively modifying the interchanges. Some of these interchanges include the I-75 stack (constructed in the 1980s) and several interchanges serving the Walt Disney World Resort (constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s).
  In 2002, I-4, along with most of Florida's interstates, switched over from a sequential exit numbering system to a mileage-based exit numbering system.
  A section of I-4 between Daytona Beach and Orlando called the "dead zone" is rumored to be haunted. In 2010, the ECFRPC using GIS technology performed an analysis to determine if this identified zone had an increased fatality rate related to crashes. The analysis which compared this section of I-4 to several other dangerous I-4 sections found that while the dead zone area did not have the highest accident or fatality rate, it did identify that the percentage of fatality to accident was significantly higher in this location.
  The median of I-4 between Tampa and Orlando was slated to be used for the Florida High Speed Rail line between those cities. As a result of a state constitutional amendment to build a high speed rail system between its 5 largest cities passed by voters in 2000, construction projects on I-4 included a wide median to accommodate a high speed rail line. The high speed rail project was cancelled in 2004, but revived again in 2009. In 2010, the federal government awarded Florida over $2 billion—nearly the entire projected construction cost—to build the line, with work on the project to begin in 2011 and be completed by 2014. However, Governor Rick Scott's rejection of the funding ended the project.
  On January 9, 2008, 70 vehicles were involved in a large pileup on I-4 near Polk City. The pileup was caused by an unexpected thick morning fog that was mixed with a scheduled—and approved—environmental burn by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The fog drifted across I-4, mixing with the smoke, reducing visibility to near-zero conditions. Four people were killed, and 38 were injured. The section of I-4 did not re-open until the next day, January 10.
caption: I-4 eastbound at exit 111 in Volusia County
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