By BILL BRASWELL Polk County Commissioner
Construction has begun on the Central Polk Parkway. It will be a four-lane divided toll road that runs from the existing Polk Parkway down to Highway 60.
If you drive the existing parkway, you can’t help but notice the interchange is well underway next to the landfill where the new Parkway will connect with the existing Parkway.
The Florida Turnpike Authority recently approached the County Commission in regard to closing exit 14 on the parkway to facilitate expediting construction of the new Central Polk Parkway. What does this mean to you if you use the Polk Parkway and take exit 14 onto Winter Lake Road?
That exit will be closed in the near future for 18 months. The detour for this closure will be to exit at Highway 92, travel east to Recker Highway, then south on Recker Highway to Spirit Lake Road. The additional traffic will impact the intersection of Berkley Road and Recker Highway at US 92 and may require retiming the red lights at those intersections.
Your County Commission approved this change in construction plans because the Turnpike Authority has determined that if they close the ramp, it can move the completion of the Central Polk Parkway up 2 years.
There was going to be considerable temporary construction and rerouting to accommodate the new construction. By closing exit 14, all of that temporary construction can be avoided. While inconvenient in the short term, getting this project moved forward 2 years is a big deal. The first phase of this project goes from the existing Polk Parkway at exit 14 to Highway 17 south of the Bartow Airport. Later this year, construction will begin on the second phase which will go from Highway 17 southeast to Highway 60. This road will take traffic off Highway 98 north and southbound and allow transient traffic to go from Highway 60 to interstate 4 and avoid all surface roads. It will also create a short cut for traffic traveling north on US 27 heading to Tampa. In addition to this project, there is discussion again regarding extending the parkway from Highway 60 south to Naples. When you add this to the current county and state projects in our county, we will have numerous four-lane divided highways able to pull traffic from US Highways 17, 27, and 98. In addition to all of this, in the very near future, all of the existing Polk Parkway will be four-lane and an additional interchange will open soon at Braddock Road. The toll booths are being removed and replaced by a high-speed overhead toll system that does not require you to slow down. In addition to all of this, next year most of the existing parkway will be resurfaced and I think we all can agree it needs it.