Expect alternative route on Wildlife Drive this weekend

A small section of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive will be temporarily closed this weekend for North Shore Interconnect Project construction activities. Wildlife drive traffic should use the Laughlin Road to Interceptor Road portions of the Wildlife Drive to reach the drive’s exit

Construction activities temporarily close a small section

MAITLAND, Fla., Feb. 12, 2021 — Visitors to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive should anticipate a temporary closure at the western McDonald/Canal roads section of the drive this weekend to allow for construction activities on the Lake Apopka North Shore Interconnect Project.

McDonald Canal Road and a one-mile segment of Lake Level Canal Road will be temporarily closed Friday through Monday. An alternative route will instead use the Laughlin Road to Interceptor Road portions of the Wildlife Drive to reach the drive’s exit.

The North Shore Interconnect Project will pump water from the Duda portions of the property to eastern portions of the North Shore to help reduce phosphorus entering Lake Apopka. The project is one in a series of St. Johns River Water Management District projects to enhance the lake’s water quality by storing more water on the North Shore and improve the recovering wetlands’ habitat value.

Since the late 1980s, the District’s work at Lake Apopka has resulted in phosphorus reductions of 64% while water clarity has increased by 55%. The recovery of clearer water and return of sunlight to the lake’s bottom has caused the regrowth of submerged aquatic vegetation, missing for 50 years, and critical to the continued increases in largemouth bass habitat.