At long last, a decaying roadway on Orange City’s east side is undergoing repairs and upgrades.

South Kentucky Avenue, which stretches almost a mile from East Graves Avenue to its dead end, is a two-lane road fraught with years of neglect and safety hazards. The road is to be milled and resurfaced, and curbs and gutters will be added to improve drainage. The work is to be completed within 120 days.

“The notice to proceed, which was the day we started to track, was Nov. 13,” City Manager Dale Arrington told The Beacon.

The reconstruction of South Kentucky Avenue is the work of Stage Door II Inc., an Apopka firm that was the lowest of four bidders for the project. The City Council awarded to Stage Door II the contract for just under $848,000.

South Kentucky Avenue, which has access to Oakhurst and Sherwood Oaks, is now a private road, but that is about to change.

“Once the construction is done, the city will accept the road as a public road,” Assistant City Manager Christine Davis said.

South Kentucky Avenue will also provide access to and from Liberty Station, a neighborhood now under development.

The city also paid Colliers Engineering and Design about $92,000 to plan for the construction, and it also paid Bryant Miller Olive, a law firm with offices in Orlando and Atlanta, to set up a special-assessment district. Owners of property along and around the road will pay the cost of fixing it. The special assessments were added to the tax bills sent to property owners last month.

The road was built more than 50 years ago by developers who later left the area or declared bankruptcy.

While pondering what to do about the failing South Kentucky Avenue, city leaders in 2022 approved spending almost $50,000 in stopgap repairs until a more permanent repair and maintenance arrangement could be formulated.