Officially ending months of inter-agency negotiations over funding for the $1.7-billion Wekiva Parkway toll-road project near Orlando, Florida Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad in late May signed a memorandum of agreement with the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, or OOCEA, that pushes the long-planned project one step closer to reality.
The Florida Dept. of Transportation and OOCEA will each design, construct, own, operate and maintain separate portions of the planned 25-mile-long tollway, which will complete Orlando's beltway. The two agencies, which previously had announced a preliminary agreement to build the project in May 2011, have determined that OOCEA will contribute $530 million and FDOT $850 million.