OCALA, FL (352today.com) – The Office of the County Engineer provided updates with the various road projects within Marion County at the Marion County Board of County Commissioner meeting on Tuesday, April 21, 2026.
The soft opening of the full four lanes of SW 40th and SW 49th Ave., the new four lane from SW 66th St. to SW 43rd St. Rd., is scheduled for April 23. The contractor worked through the weekends, all hours of the day to get the project ready, so they will be able to open up that north-south movement, said Steven Cohoon, Marion County engineer. There are turn lanes that have been extended on SW 42nd St. There has also been the installation of the dual left turn lanes eastbound as well as the extension of the westbound at SW 27th Ave.
“We received direction from the board, moved forward and got things installed, and we did push out the soft opening of the two lanes by a couple of days, so we could do the full four lane opening, as part of this that’s going to be opened on Thursday,” said Cohoon. “The 66th St. section, it will be closed east and west of 40th/49th. You will be able to traverse north and south, and be able to go over I-75, but about a 200-foot section to the east at the 40th/49th/66th St. intersection will be closed and the same to the west.”
There is still some utility relocation that needs to occur, east and west of the intersection; traffic will be able to go north and south, said Cohoon.
Progress in motionÂ
Construction is underway for the SW 80th Ave. segment 1A, the segment between SW 90th St. and SW 80th St., where two lanes will be added from SW 90th St. to 0.62 mile north of SW 38th St.
“What happened last week was we shifted traffic to the east side, that’s allowing the contractor to work on the west side of 80th between these two side streets,” said Cohoon. “They’re going to be building that permanent road over the next 90 days. So, about three months from now, we’ll be shifting traffic back to the westside between 80th and 90th street, and we’ll be constructing the eastside of the new four lane corridor.”
The county has finalized agreements with On Top of the World, and an interlocal agreement has also been executed with the Marion County Public School Board for some right-of-way, said Cohoon. The county is continuing to coordinate with the City of Ocala and appraisals are being made for 66 properties in this particular corridor.
A right-of-entry agreement has been completed with the World Equestrian Center in relation to NW 80th Ave. and NW 70th Ave. segment three, regarding two lanes from W. HWY 40 to N. U.S. HWY 27. The county is actively negotiating the right-of-way acquisition of 40 properties, with 23 already having been acquired. The notice to proceed estimation is July 2026. This project will be done in a very similar way to 80th Ave. segment one, where there are concurrent activities, the contractor can be released to certain areas of this particular project, all while the county is wrapping up and finalizing the last few pieces of right-of-way acquisition. The construction advertisement for the project is going to be released April 22, 2026.
Community outreach
A public meeting was held March 31, 2026, at the Marion Oaks Community Center in relation to phase one of the SW HWY 484 widening project, adding two lanes, from Marion Oaks Blvd. to SW 16th Ave./475A. This is the segment where the bridge would need to be widened, for the widening to a six-lane facility to occur, said Cohoon. About 140 people attended the meeting. The county is in the process of finalizing the traffic methodology for the project development and environmental study, opening up the door for federal grants for the county. The board will then be able to solicit the federal government as well as the department of transportation, to not only widen the six lanes, but also add in the bridge widening.
Marion County Commission Vice Chair Matt McClain had mentioned the importance of having the Marion Oaks Manor extension project completed, which is a design-build project, and it should be completed sometime in the first quarter of 2027, said Cohoon. There is still a lot of right-of-way acquisition that needs to take place and a design that needs to be completed as well as the construction. Through the design-build process all of these activities can be done concurrently. Designers and contractors can be released to certain areas as the county acquires right-of-way, and that project can advanced more rapidly.
“I believe in worst case, we’re looking at about a three-and-a-half-year process to get the entire corridor built… But that doesn’t mean that during that three-and-a-half-year period where we don’t start to feel some of the benefits,” said Cohoon. “There’s a very likely scenario where you can get across I-75 and start to open up portions of this project in such a way that it begins to relieve 484 in a shorter period, maybe even two years. There’s a lot that’s happening. I agree the importance of that extension and our preliminary data is showing that there would be a significant level of service benefit to 484, which gives us a little bit of pause of needing to immediately widen that to six lanes.”
Finding ways to fund the projects
Commissioner Craig Curry, Dist. No. 1, mentioned that there had been discussion about bonding some of the projects so they would move along more quickly.
“We’ve had numerous conversations with our finance department, as well as our bond council,” said Cohoon. “Right now, preliminarily, I’m looking at about a $190 million need that would cover the Marion Oaks Manor extension, that would also cover the 49th St. project that’s between 225A and I-75, and then also the 38th/40th corridor, the four-laneing by the high school, from 80th all the way back to almost 200. Those are the three major projects. We’ve proposed to reduce some of the current funding on some of our lower threshold capacity projects, that way we don’t have to bond right-of-way. Making those projects whole by unencumbering some funds potentially for some lower capacity projects. I’d rather bond construction-only activities than try to bond right-of-way, and then from a timing perspective it allows us to line everything up nicely, where we can go in and get one bond for $190 million.”