← The Roadmap Reckoner: scorecard and every promise

Did Orange County finish the Pine Hills septic-to-sewer project on Pine Hills Road by fall 2025, as its September 2024 update said?

The Roadmap Reckoner · Pine Hills Road between Alhambra Drive and Golf Club Parkway, Pine Hills, unincorporated Orange County, Florida · last checked 2026-10-23

Verdict	DELIVERED LATE (by about 5 to 6 months)
Promiser	Orange County Government, through Orange County Utilities, in conjunction with Orange County Public Works
Place	Pine Hills Road between Alhambra Drive and Golf Club Parkway, Pine Hills, unincorporated Orange County, Florida
Promised	Work starts fall 2024 and ends fall 2025 (the county's September 2024 project update; counted to December 21, 2025, the end of fall)
Delivered / status	Sewer trenching and construction concluded in June 2026 (county release, July 16, 2026); 95 parcels converted against 93 promised; final restoration at private properties and Public Works' remaining construction still open on the county's page
Last checked	2026-10-23

Verdict: DELIVERED LATE, by about 5 to 6 months for the sewer work. Some related work is still open. The county's project update of September 2024 gave "Anticipated End Date: Fall 2025" [C2]. The county's own page of November 14, 2024, which was archived, says the same: "The anticipated end date for the project is fall 2025." [C17] This entry reads fall 2025 as ending with the December solstice, on December 21, 2025. The county's release of July 16, 2026 says "the trenching and construction for the septic to sewer conversions concluded in June 2026." [C30] June 1 is 162 days and June 30 is 191 days after December 21, 2025, so the sewer work finished about 5 to 6 months after the promised end. The release names no day in June [C30]. WFTV reported on June 10, 2026 that the program "completed the final road resurfacing and utility work on Pine Hills Road." [C40] June 10 is 171 days after December 21, 2025. The county converted 95 parcels, against the 93 properties the update promised [C3, C29]. The county's page today says final restoration at private properties continues and that Orange County Public Works will complete the remaining construction [C32, C33].

Last checked: October 23, 2026.

The promise. Work to start in fall 2024 and end in fall 2025; about 8,000 feet of pipe, 22 manholes, 93 properties, resurfacing from Alhambra Drive to Golf Club Parkway after the utility work; a budget of "almost $12 million" [C1, C2, C3, C4, C5].
What was done. 95 parcels (65 businesses and 30 homes) converted from septic to county sewer; the county says all benefitting properties are connected [C29, C31, C32].
How late. The county's own schedule moved from fall 2025, to dates between October 2025 and January 2026 on its page of November 2025, to substantial completion "by June 2026" on its page of May 2026 [C18, C21, C23]. The work concluded in June 2026 [C30].
What is still open. Final restoration at private properties and "remaining construction activities" by Public Works, both without a date on the county's page [C32, C33]; the final cost; and a county page that still gives the old summer 2026 finish [C37].

The promise

The county's two-page project update, "Pine Hills Septic Tank Retrofit Project September 2024", from Orange County Utilities [C1]:

"Work Starts: Fall 2024" "Anticipated End Date: Fall 2025"

The work. "Orange County Utilities will install approximately 8,000 feet of pipe and 22 manholes, which will be constructed underground along Pine Hills Road." [C4]
The road. "In conjunction with the Pine Hills Road Pedestrian Safety Improvements Project, the segment of roadway from Alhambra Drive to Golf Club Parkway will be resurfaced with new asphalt pavement at the completion of the utility improvements." [C4]
The properties. "Orange County Utilities is proposing to connect 93 properties to the county sewer system within the project boundary." [C3]
The budget. The update says "budget of almost $12 million" [C5].

The county's file under that address was last modified on February 3, 2025, so the copy read may not be the September 2024 text. The county's own page of November 14, 2024 carries the same fall 2025 end date, and its wording is quoted above [C1, C17, PROMISE.md].

Before the promise

March 21, 2023. The county board approved a state grant for septic tank abandonment "for up to 173 parcels along Pine Hills Road", "in the not-to-exceed amount of $4,290,000 towards the estimated total project cost of $8,580,000." [C6, C7] The grant's date of expiration is "December 31, 2026". [C8]
July 24, 2024. Change Order 12 added the septic-to-sewer work to the county's Pine Hills Road Pedestrian Safety contract. Its form says "CO # 12 will construct sanitary sewer to Pine Hills road. 360 days added to the contract." [C10, C13] The change order's amount is $9,849,999.52 [C12].
August 27, 2024. The board approved Change Order 12 on its consent agenda [C15]. The funding was grants of $9,182,814.62 plus $2,666,428.42 from the county, together $11,849,243.04, which is the "almost $12 million" [C14, C5, the trace].

Timeline

September 2024. The promise: work starts fall 2024, ends fall 2025 [C1, C2].
November 14, 2024. The county's page: "Construction is anticipated to start in fall 2024. The anticipated end date for the project is fall 2025." It says 84 parcels and about 8,000 feet [C16, C17].
May 30, 2025. WKMG News 6 reported that, according to Commissioner Mike Scott, the pipe work was 77% complete, and wrote "Even though the project is expected to be completed by late fall, they have run into delays" [C41].
July 17, 2025. The county's page: "Septic to sewer conversions began in September 2024 and are anticipated to be completed in fall 2025." [C18]
November 9, 2025. The county's page, the first slip on it: right-of-way work "estimated to be completed in mid-October 2025", private parcels "at the end of December 2025", and "Final site restoration is estimated to be completed at the end of January 2026." It adds "The project is still in progress." [C20, C21]
December 21, 2025. The end of fall, as this entry counts it [the trace].
February 19, 2026. The county's page: "In the county right-of-way (ROW): Utility improvements have been completed." "Final restoration is estimated to be completed in February 2026." "The project is still in progress and on track to achieve substantial completion by early 2026." [C22]
April 9, 2026. Change Order 24 added asphalt: "Asphalt of these thicknesses was not anticipated in the utilities scope of work but was necessary due to existing field conditions." [C26]
May 10, 2026. The county's page: "Final restoration is estimated to be completed in May 2026." "The project is still in progress and on track to achieve substantial completion by June 2026." [C23]
June 10, 2026. WFTV: the program "completed the final road resurfacing and utility work on Pine Hills Road." [C40]
June 2026. The trenching and construction concluded, per the county's release [C30].
July 16, 2026. The county's release on the completion [C29, C30].
September 4, 2026. The county's Engage Orange page was last updated; it still says "scheduled for completion early summer 2026" [C37].
September 15, 2026. The board approved Amendment 1 to the state grant on its consent agenda [C39].
October 23, 2026. The county's page: "All benefitting properties have been connected to the Orange County wastewater collection system, and final restoration is being completed at individual private properties." [C32]

What changed, and why, in the record's own words

The date. It held at fall 2025 through the county's page of July 17, 2025 [C17, C18]. The page of November 9, 2025 replaced it with three dated stages [C21]. The page of February 19, 2026 said "substantial completion by early 2026" and the page of May 10, 2026 said "substantial completion by June 2026" [C22, C23]. The work concluded in June 2026 [C30].
Why, as the sources give it. WKMG printed this sentence on May 30, 2025, about the pedestrian safety project, without naming the speaker; the paragraph is about Commissioner Mike Scott's remarks: "We had to put that project on pause because it doesn't make sense to complete the project and do the mailing and all that stuff just to dig it back up again." [C41] WKMG wrote that Scott "says traffic issues, getting building materials and federal funding for the Septic-to-Sewer project secured by Congressman Maxwell Frost are also some of the factors that caused the delay." [C41] That sentence is the reporter's wording, not Scott's quoted words [C41]. The county's page says the schedule "could change due to supply chain shortages, weather conditions, other utility coordination, grant funding requirements, and unforeseen factors." [C42]
The scope. The update promised 93 properties and the county now reports 95 [C3, C29]. Change Order 25, approved on the board's consent agenda on June 16, 2026, "includes utilities work to connect 4 additional parcels" [C27, C38]. The records read do not explain how 93 plus 4 becomes 95, or the 84 parcels on the county's page from November 2024 to November 2025 [C16, C20].
The pipe. The update promised "approximately 8,000 feet of pipe" [C4]. The county's page today says "4,000 feet of sewer pipes, 4,000 feet of service laterals, and 22 manholes." [C31] Change Order 12 counts "approximately 4,000 linear feet of 8-inch gravity sewer main" [C9]. This entry does not rule on whether 4,000 plus 4,000 is the update's 8,000.
The limits. The update, the county's release and its page say Alhambra Drive to Golf Club Parkway [C4, C29]. Change Order 12 says "north of Colonial Drive to Silver Star Road" [C9]. This entry does not rule on the difference.
The road. The update said the road would be resurfaced "at the completion of the utility improvements" [C4]. WFTV reported the final resurfacing complete on June 10, 2026 [C40]. No county page or set of minutes read says the resurfacing is finished. The county's page assigns the "remaining construction activities" to Public Works as part of the Pine Hills Road Pedestrian Safety Project [C33].

What it cost

The promise. "Almost $12 million" [C5], made up of grants of $9,182,814.62 and $2,666,428.42 from the county [C14].
The contract. The contract carries both this work and the pedestrian safety project, so the change orders cannot be read as this project's cost [C27, the trace]. Change Order 12 was $9,849,999.52 [C12]. Change Order 25 raised the contract by $1,217,895.11 to $24,602,213.64 [C27]. Together the two septic change orders are $11,067,894.63, for construction only [C12, C27, the trace].
The later asphalt. Change Orders 22 to 24 added $1,503,781.53, mostly asphalt to restore the road over the trenches; the memos do not split them between the two projects [C25, C26, the trace].
The final cost. The final cost of the sewer work is not stated in any record read, so "almost $12 million" cannot be compared with an actual figure.
The state grant. The grant's expiration of December 31, 2026 required the project to be "constructed and operational prior to December 31, 2026." [C8, C11] The work concluded in June 2026, before that date [C30]. Amendment 1 set the grant's total at "a total not-to-exceed amount of $7,905,000" and the expiration at April 30, 2029 [C35, C36].

What is still open

Final restoration. The county's page says it "is being completed at individual private properties" and gives no date [C32].
The remaining construction. The county's page says "The remaining construction activities will be completed by Orange County Public Works as part of the Pine Hills Road Pedestrian Safety Project" and gives no date [C33]. This entry does not score the pedestrian safety project, which the update named as a separate project [C4].
The county's page that still says early summer 2026. The Engage Orange page, last updated September 4, 2026, says "The utility improvements began in September 2024 and the project is scheduled for completion early summer 2026." and "up to 93 parcels" [C37]. It is still on a county page last updated September 4, 2026, seven weeks after the release of July 16 said the work had concluded in June [C30, C37].
"Concluded in June 2026". The release names no day, so the lateness is given as a range [C30]. WFTV's June 10 report lies inside that range [C40].
The grant. Whether the state's money was affected by the delay is not in the records read; the grant was amended in September 2026 [C35, C36].

What this entry did not check

Public Works' pages and agendas for the Pine Hills Road Pedestrian Safety Project, and so whether the resurfacing was finished on the date WFTV gave [the trace].
Change Orders 13 to 24 themselves. They were approved administratively; only the June 2026 memo's summary was read [C24, C25, C26, the trace].
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's and the water management district's own grant records [the trace].
Residents' accounts of the work. News 6 reported complaints about equipment and safety in May 2025; this entry scores the schedule, not those complaints [C41].

Sources

← All Reckoner entries