GlobeSt.com UPDATE: Lake Politicos Hire Lobbyist to Find $5M for Toll Road Study

TAVARES, FL-After rejecting a toll road connection proposal to Orlando last September, elected Lake County officials have switched gears and are paying a government and public affairs consultant $60,000 to lobby the Congress for $5 million to fund a formal study of the venture, essentially an east-west bypass route to Orlando.

Arlington, VA-based Alcalde & Fay has the assignment. The county last year failed to get $3 million from Washington to study the road project. County staffers tell GlobeSt.com that if the Congress approves, the money would have to be tied to a new transportation spending bill next year.

Based on the $237 million it recently cost to build 10.5 miles of Orlando’s beltway, the proposed 35-mile Lake-Sumter Greenway would come in at around $22.6 million per mile or a total $791 million, county planners tell GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.