Florida State Road 570

State Road 570
Polk Parkway
Route information
Maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise
Length:	24.380 mi (39.236 km)
Existed:	December 12, 1999 – present
Major junctions
West end:	I-4 / SR 400 near Plant City
	US 98 in in Bartow US 92 in Auburndale
East end:	I-4 / SR 400 near Polk City
Location
Counties:	Polk
Highway system
Florida State Roads Interstate • US • SR (Pre-1945) • Toll ← SR 569 SR 572 →

The Polk Parkway, also known as State Road 570, is a 24.380-mile (39.236 km), limited-access toll road which runs through Polk County, Florida. It is operated as part of the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise system of limited-access expressways. The Polk Parkway mainly serves as a beltway around Lakeland forming a semicircle, which along with I-4 circumscribes most of the city limits of Lakeland.

As part of the Florida's Turnpike network, SunPass, E-Pass, and LeeWay electronic toll collection are recognized along with coin collection at toll plazas and interchange ramps. The Polk Parkway does not, however, employ open road tolling like numerous other toll roads in Florida.

Route description

The Polk Parkway provides easier access to Interstate 4 from Polk County cities such as Winter Haven, Bartow, and Auburndale, and the south side of Lakeland. The road is signed east–west, although the section from SR 540 (exit 14) to the eastern terminus near Interstate 4 runs nearly south to north. The Polk Parkway is a four lane divided expressway for most of its length, although between Old Dixie Highway (Exit 18) and the eastern terminus at I-4, the highway is a "Super 2" freeway, with one lane in each direction, using the northbound median.

History

The Polk Parkway was originally conceived in the 1950s as a circumferential route around Lakeland, and after several delays in planning due to funding shortfalls, it was revived as the Imperial Parkway by the Polk County Commission in 1986. Due to the delays, a proposal in the 1970s/1980s that would have connected the parkway with the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway never came to fruition.^{[citation needed]} In the spring of 1990, the Florida Legislature led by Senate leader and Winter Haven resident Bob Crawford, incorporated the Polk Parkway into the Turnpike Expansion Program, a part of Senate Bill 1316.

The Parkway's groundbreaking was on January 25, 1996. The western 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of the Parkway opened to traffic on August 9, 1998. The central section, approximately 10 miles (16 km) in length, opened to traffic on 2 August 1999. The easternmost 7.5 miles (12.1 km) of road opened to traffic on 12 December 1999, completing the highway at a cost of $490 million.

The 1998 Florida Legislature designated the western 7 miles (11 km) of the Polk Parkway (between Interstate 4 and South Florida Avenue (State Road 37)) as the James Henry Mills Medal of Honor Parkway. Mills was the only native of Polk County to receive a medal of honor in World War II, in recognition of his heroic actions in Cisterna, Italy.

Future

The Polk Parkway has become an important part of Polk County's transportation infrastructure as traffic has increased in the growing county. In the late summer of 2009, the Turnpike began widening the Polk Parkway from Interstate 4 at Polk City south to Pace Road. This $48 million design-build project includes construction of a SunPass-only interchange at Pace Road (exit 23), featuring a modified cloverleaf design. The toll will be 25 cents for the to-and-from the east (north) movement. The to-and-from the west (south) movement will not be tolled as there is a mainline plaza to the west where the toll will be collected. The project will be complete in late spring 2011 in time to provide access to the new USF Polytechnic campus.^{[citation needed]}

The project is a public-private partnership between the Florida Department of Transportation—Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, USF Polytechnic, the Polk County Board of County Commissioners and The Williams Company.

There have been several plans presented to the public since the early 2000s regarding a proposed Heartland Parkway which would be a roughly 110-mile (180 km) parkway extending from the Polk Parkway to Southwest Florida near Ft. Myers.

There has also been a proposal to construct an extension from the Polk Parkway encircling Winter Haven and connecting with I-4 near the Polk-Osceola county line. Another proposed parkway would connect the southeast corner of the Polk Parkway with State Road 60 east of Lake Wales.

Exit list

The entire route is located in Polk County.

Location	Mile	#	Destinations	Notes
	0.030	0	I-4 – Tampa, Orlando	Exit 27 on I-4, northbound exit and southbound entrance
	0.534	1	Old Tampa Highway	Northbound exit, southbound entrance
	2.851	3	SR 572 (Airport Road)
	4.133	4	Waring Road, Drane Field Road
	5.551	5	SR 563 (Harden Boulevard)
	6.683	7	SR 37 (South Florida Avenue)
		Western Toll Plaza ($1.00)
	8.727	9	Lakeland Highlands Road
	10.143	10	US 98 (Bartow Road) – Lakeland, Bartow
		Central Toll Plaza ($1.00)
	13.918	14	SR 540 (Winter Lake Road)
	17.291	17	US 92 (Auburndale Highway) – Lakeland, Auburndale
	18.645	18	Old Dixie Highway
		Eastern Toll Plaza ($1.00)
		23	Pace Road	Opened Nov. 10, 2011. 25 cents, SunPass-only toll collected northbound on-and southbound off-ramps
	24.350	24	I-4 – Tampa, Orlando	Exit 41 on I-4, northbound exit and southbound entrance

External links

• Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (official site)
• Map of Polk Parkway/SR 570
• Florida Department of Transportation (official site)
• SunPass