Florida State Road 471

State Road 471
Route information
	Maintained by FDOT
Length:	34.6 mi (55.68 km)
Major junctions
South end:	US 98 / SR 35 / SR 700 near Branchborough
	SR 50 in Tarrytown
North end:	US 301 / SR 35 / CR 470 in Sumterville
Highway system

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State Road 471 is a two-lane rural highway primarily in Sumter County in the state of Florida. It runs north and south from US 98 in northwestern Polk County to US 301 in Sumterville to US 98 in Sumter County.

[edit] Route description

Old-style shield at a road that crosses SR 471 in Webster

State Road 471 begins at U.S. 98 in northwestern Polk County, which is just southeast of Branchborough in Pasco County, and the eastern terminus of Pasco County Road 54, a county extension of Florida State Road 54. The road soon leaves Polk County and runs along the Pasco-Polk County Line. Here the road runs entirely through preserved forest land and swampland, including the Green Swamp. Contrary to what many maps indicate it is not as straight through this area shifing from lefr to right and vice-versa on a random basis. Crossing the Withlacoochee River, the Pasco-Polk border is replaced by the Pasco-Sumter border, and the landscape described earlier continues. Eventually it enters part of the Withlacoochee State Forest, and some distance later, the Pasco-Sumter Line is replaced by the Hernado-Sumter Line. After leaving the forest the road crosses over the Little Withlacoochee River where the Hernando-Sumter border turns west, and SR 471 is now entirely in Sumter County. Eventually, the road slows down into Tarrytown, Florida where it approaches a lumber mill, and crosses the former right-of-way for the Orange Belt Railway just south of the intersection of Florida State Road 50.

North of Tarrytown, SR 471 becomes as straight as road maps incorrectly indicate it to be south of Tarrytown. Most of this segment of the road runs primarily through farmland interrupted only by the occasional rural road, and county road without shields. However the amount of farmland is reduced, but not eliminated, once it runs through the City of Webster, a popular farm-to-market trading post. Within Webster, SR 471 serves as a terminus of Sumter County Road 478A and 4/10 of a mile later intersects County Road 478, which spans from US 301 in the St. Catherine/Croom-A-Coochie area to Center Hill. SR 471 shares a 3/10 mile concurrency with CR 478 between Southeast First Street and Northwest Fourth Street. Outside of the Webster city limits, farmland becomes more prominent again, and the road becomes part of an unincorporated communiuty named Belville's Corner, which is also the intersection with Sumter County Road 48, a tri-county extension of Florida State Road 48. North of Belville's Corner, the road intersects the eastern terminus of Sumter County Road 476 and western terminus of Sumter County Road 567. Enering Sumterville, SR 471 shifts slightly to the northwest and runs in close proximity to a former Seaboard Air Line Railroad line that ran towards Winter Haven, and carried Amtrak trains until 1988. Two county roads of minor significance include County Road 528 and later 526, both of which lead to a campus of the Lake-Sumter Community College. Like those two streets, SR 471 terminates at US 301 in Sumterville. However, unlike these two the segment of US 301 is also shared with Sumter County Road 470.

[edit] Major intersections

County	Location	Mile	Destinations	Notes
Polk		0.0	US 98	Southern terminus East of Branchborough
Sumter	Tarrytown	21.2	SR 50
	Webster	24.5	CR 478A
	Webster	24.9	CR 478	0.3 mile concurrency
	Belville's Corner	27.8	CR 48	County extension of SR 48
		28.8	CR 476 / CR 567
	Sumterville	33.6	CR 528	To Lake-Sumter Community College
		34.1	CR 526
		34.6	US 301 / CR 470	Northern terminus
	1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi