The eight-mile segment of I-4 that runs through downtown Orlando opened to traffic in 1965 and accommodated 70,000 vehicles per day. Since that time the Orlando region has grown exponentially, and the highway has been expanded to provide three to four lanes in each direction.
The I-4 Ultimate project is the outcome of several earlier planning studies. In 1989, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) completed a Master Plan for I-4 that called for widening the existing roadway by up to eight lanes per direction and adding a transit line in the median by 2010. Planning in the corridor continued in the mid-1990s with a multi-modal master plan for a longer 73-mile section of the I-4 corridor which also included a Major Investment Study (MIS) assessing nine improvement options. In 1995, the local metropolitan planning organization, known as MetroPlan Orlando, adopted the recommendations made for the corridor in the MIS into its financially constrained long-range transportation plan.
FDOT continued the corridor development process by undertaking three closely coordinated environmental approval and engineering studies for the I-4 highway improvements and an environmental evaluation of the light rail transit line. The engineering study with the same limits as the I-4 Ultimate project recommended widening the highway to accommodate six general purpose lanes and two high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes in each direction, together with a 44-foot rail corridor in the median of the highway. This configuration gained environmental approval from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2005.
At the same time, FDOT was completing similar studies for a project that would reconstruct and add high occupancy toll (HOT) lanes-also called express lanes-to I-595 in Fort Lauderdale. Vehicles with two or more passengers could use the HOT lanes at no cost, but single occupant vehicles would be required to pay a toll to use the lanes. The toll rate would vary based on congestion levels in the non-tolled lanes. In light of the high cost of the I-4 improvements and the desire to maximize transportation benefits, FDOT began exploring the possibility of operating the proposed HOV lanes on I-4 as HOT lanes. Later in 2005, it began a re-evaluation of its design studies to assess the effects of this change, and in September 2007, MetroPlan Orlando modified its long-range transportation plan to include HOT lanes on I-4. However, the use of tolls on I-4 remained uncertain, as a member of the Florida delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives had amended newly passed federal transportation legislation to explicitly prohibit the use of tolls on I-4 in the state.
Meanwhile, FDOT continued to purchase land that would be needed to implement the project and local elected officials voiced their support for the HOT lanes. In 2011, FDOT gained the required permits for the project and also announced that the state's transportation program would rely heavily on the use of tolling and public-private partnerships (P3s) in the future, due to insufficient levels of traditional transportation revenues to meet investment needs. In March 2012 traffic and revenue forecasts for the tolled lanes were completed and FDOT began a feasibility study for proceeding with the project on a tolled basis. At the same time, the U.S. Congress was also advancing new federal transportation legislation called Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), and when it passed in July 2012, the ban on tolling the new lanes on I-4 was removed because the legislation made tolling for the construction of new Interstate Highways and tolling new lanes eligible under federal transportation law.