Around Oct. 1, eastbound State Road 16 moves onto lanes nobody has driven on yet.

The section is about a quarter of a mile long, near International Golf Parkway, between the AutoZone driveway and the 7-Eleven. The county announced it in a release dated Sept. 9. Access to both of those businesses is unchanged.

The part of this that outlives the cones is at the intersection. Drivers turning right from International Golf Parkway onto SR 16 will have to stop first, because westbound traffic will be running in the right lane.

That is not temporary. The release says so in a sentence of its own: “This stop requirement will remain in place following completion of the widening project.”

So a right turn that has been a rolling turn becomes a stop, and stays one.

The job

The project adds two travel lanes on SR 16 from International Golf Parkway to just past County Road 2209. Construction started July 26, 2025. The county puts it at roughly 70 percent complete and due in early spring 2027.

Once traffic is on the new pavement, the contractor rebuilds the two existing lanes, which then become the eastbound lanes.

The commission approved the contracts at its meeting of June 17, 2025, fifteen months ago. C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., Inc. took the widening at $21,460,052 as low bidder.

A second contract went to Besch and Smith Civil Group, Inc. at $4,340,464.10, for four two-phase traffic signals and two median openings where SR 16 meets Stratton Boulevard and Industry Center Road, plus signal-protected crosswalks. The county said the two together came to more than $25 million, and that state transportation grants pay part of both.

The release announcing next month’s shift does not mention the signals.

What the county says to do about it

Variable message boards and temporary signs go up to explain the new pattern. Valerie Pacetti, the project manager for county Public Works, is quoted in the release:

We encourage drivers to pay close attention to the temporary signage and use caution as they become familiar with the new traffic pattern.

The release gives no firmer date than “around October 1,” which is fine. The date a driver actually needs is the morning the cones move, and that one arrives without notice.