MAITLAND, Fla. – Commuters say a Big Drive construction project designed to give drivers more room as they head to Interstate 4 is causing major gridlock along Maitland Boulevard. Drivers tell News 6 it is taking them longer to get to their destinations than it did before.
Traffic on Maitland Boulevard is a common sight, but it has gotten even worse.
"It's miserable, this new change," driver Jenna Roden said.
Roden tells News 6 she leaves work everyday around 5:30 p.m. and spends a good amount of her commute sitting in congestion.
"Used to take me about 40 minutes and now I'm close to an hour," she said.
Others who work along Maitland Boulevard say they're experiencing the same traffic mess.
"If you leave at 5 p.m. you're hosed. If you leave at 6 p.m. it's still just as bad. We figure maybe we leave the office by 8 p.m. we might be able to make it home in a pretty good amount of time," driver Jennifer Durst-Jarrell said.
Some people, like Durst-Jarrell, say they're commute time has double since the change started and she doesn't live far from where she works.
"It's definitely added a good half hour to the commute that's only six miles. It's kind of brutal," Durst-Jarrell said.
The problem is the back up on the side streets, like Keller Road. Drivers tell News 6 they can wait up to 20 minutes to get a green light. They then get stuck in more traffic on Maitland Boulevard while drivers navigate the new traffic pattern.
FDOT says it is aware of the issue. It started getting complaints on Monday. A spokesperson told News 6 crews were out Thursday checking equipment to make sure everything is working as well as trying to fix the timing problem.
"Signal timing is a very technical thing. We have to be mindful of tweaks we make and we have been trying to work toward a resolution," FDOT spokesperson Jessica Ottaviano said.
But until then, drivers are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and they're taking their frustrations out on the road.
"Patience is wearing thin and partly because it's so hot out, but people are getting tired of that long commute for no really understandable good reason," Durst-Jarrell said.
FDOT hopes to solve the traffic signal timing problem by Friday morning in time for the work commute. Crews will monitor the signals to make sure the changes work.