Fairbanks and Aloma Are Being Rebuilt After Dark. What Changes on Your Daily Route Through Winter Park?

The Brewer Avenue curve is getting a road that responds to drivers. The Florida Department of Transportation plans sensors there that measure the speed of each approaching car and switch on flashing warning signs when one comes in too fast. Most people who drive Fairbanks every day won't see it being installed, because most of the work happens while they sleep.

That curve is one piece of FDOT's State Road 426 Safety Improvement Project. The project covers 1.7 miles of Fairbanks, Osceola, Brewer and Aloma avenues between South Park Avenue and North Lakemont Avenue. Construction has started, according to the city's September through November newsletter. FDOT's project page estimates completion in fall 2027. When it's done, the road will be designed less around getting through Winter Park and more around stopping at specific, named places along the way.

Eight Places on the Corridor Built for Crossing

Count every location where the finished road asks drivers to rise, slow or stop for someone on foot, and you get eight in 1.7 miles. FDOT's July 2026 project flyer lists them by name.

The three midblock crossings will change daily habits the most. A Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon stays dark until someone on foot activates it. Then it signals drivers to stop so the person can cross. On a road where many drivers have never had to stop between signals, the crossings near Trismen Park and Fletcher Place create new stops in the middle of a block. FDOT's Alert Today Florida program explains how to use the beacons at alerttodayflorida.com/Pedestrian.

The flyer also lists speed tables but doesn't say where each one goes. An earlier FDOT handout put them west of Lyman Avenue, east of Osceola Court and south of Trismen Park. The newer flyer doesn't repeat those locations, so treat them as a guide until the tables are actually in the pavement.

This design also replaces an older one that some residents may remember. A 2025 Winter Park Voice report described raised intersections at Chase, Sylvan and Cortland. The current flyer lists North Phelps, Shepherd, Cortland and Chase/Ollie. If a neighbor's description of the plan doesn't match what you see going in, they're probably working from the older version.

Why the State Is Asking the Corridor to Slow Down

FDOT counted 742 crashes on this stretch from 2018 through 2025, including two deaths and 231 injuries. The agency points to the corridor's curves as part of the reason, which is why Brewer gets the warning system. FDOT spokesperson Tim Freed told News 13 in July 2026 that "when you reduce speed, studies show that you are going to reduce the severity of a crash and the likelihood of a crash."

Winter Park resident Lisa Bernardini described walking the road this way: "I hated walking on the road. You would see knocked-down guardrails." Mackenzie Daugherty, who works at the women's clothing shop Charyli, said she expects the improvements to make it safer for shoppers to reach the store, though she called construction "always tricky." FDOT's maps name Rollins College, the Woman's Club of Winter Park and All Saints Episcopal Church as landmarks along the corridor.

The project costs about $8.88 million in federal, state and local money, and it includes a full repaving. The posted speed limit won't change during construction. The slowing will come from the road's physical design, not new signs.

The design has critics. Bike Walk Central Florida supports the pedestrian work but wanted more room for bicycles, noting that the corridor has no continuous bike lane. FDOT's answer was that the road is too busy to give up a driving lane and too narrow to add a bike lane. Commenters on the 2025 Winter Park Voice story called speed tables harsh, and some predicted that drivers would cut through side streets such as Palmer. If you ride a bike on Fairbanks, you'll get the new crossings but still share the road with cars.

How the Work Runs While You Sleep

FDOT's flyer says to expect intermittent single- and double-lane closures between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m., electronic message boards, and stretches of uneven pavement. Crews lay asphalt in layers over several phases, so some areas will be rough for a while before they're finished. Freed said crews "are going to keep at least one lane of traffic open in each direction."

Each round of work has its own hours. The current notice on the city's SR 426 page covers signal and concrete work near South Interlachen Avenue, Trismen Terrace, Fletcher Place and Trismen Park. It runs nightly from 8:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., started Sunday, September 27, and is expected to finish by Thursday, October 1, weather permitting. These closures alternate between single lanes in each direction. The 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. window is the outer limit for the whole project. Each notice sets the actual hours for its own phase.

FDOT hasn't published a phase-by-phase schedule for the full corridor, so the best way to plan around a late dinner or an early drive to the airport is to check the notices as they come out. You can sign up for FDOT's project emails at SR426.vercel.app. The FDOT project page and the city's project page post the current lane-closure information.

Some of This Week's Detours Belong to the City

Two of the traffic changes residents hit right now come from separate City of Winter Park jobs. They overlap with FDOT's work in time but aren't part of it:

• Fairbanks Avenue at Shoreview: Public Works stormwater maintenance, Monday, September 28 through Monday, October 5, weather permitting. Traffic on Shoreview is detoured to Lakeview, with lane shifts and delays.
• Lakemont Avenue, Taylor Avenue to Edwin Boulevard: milling and repaving by the city's Street Division, Tuesday, September 29 through Friday, October 9, weather permitting. Residents keep access to their properties, but expect detours and lane shifts.

Both appear on the city's Closures & Construction page, listed alongside the FDOT project. If you get stuck at Shoreview in the middle of the day, that's the stormwater job, not the state's overnight crews.

There's also a second state job farther east. FDOT is building the SR 426 project together with a resurfacing of Aloma Avenue from west of Eastbrook Boulevard to the canal east of Oak Reserve Lane, which is tracked as FPID 450775-1. If you drive past Lakemont toward Eastbrook, you may hit work zones that the Winter Park notices don't mention.

The Fall Calendar Still Runs Through Here

Fairbanks is how many people get to Park Avenue. The 53rd Autumn Art Festival takes over Central Park on November 14 and 15, and Park Avenue closes to traffic from Lyman to Canton both days. Mead Botanical Garden's GROWvember Fall Fest & Plant Sale runs the same two days, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., with free admission and parking. FDOT's work happens mostly overnight, so it shouldn't overlap much with festival hours. Our guide to what actually closes during the Autumn Art Festival covers the daytime side of that weekend.

If FDOT's estimate holds, by fall 2027 the trip from Park Avenue to Lakemont will include raised intersections at North Phelps, Shepherd, Cortland and Chase/Ollie, a raised crosswalk at Interlachen, beacon-equipped crossings near Henkel Circle, Trismen Park and Fletcher Place, and a warning system at the Brewer curve. More neighborhood news is collected on our Winter Park page.

If you own a home near Fairbanks or Aloma and wonder how a year of overnight work and the redesigned road could affect photo days, showing hours or how you'd describe the location to buyers, Toni Cafferty is glad to talk through the details with you. Request a Confidential Consultation, and we'll plan around the work schedule together.