The completion of the Southwest 49th Avenue extension – a 12.3-mile, four-lane connector that will link Ocala and Marion Oaks – is still at least three years from completion, according to Marion County officials and documents.
The road, which is being funded by mostly one-cent sales tax revenue, will help reduce State Road 200 corridor traffic. It will one day be a four-lane road from 42nd Street Flyover to the north to Marion Oaks Manor, south of CR 484, to the south.
There are still three main segments of the Southwest 49th Avenue project that have not launched. The total cost of the project is an estimated $70 million, most of which will come from the sales tax, which voters passed in 2016 and renewed in 2020. That tax, which increased the sales tax from 6% to 7%, is dedicated to public safety capital needs and road projects.