Florida State Road 80

Lee and Hendry Counties

State Road 80 begins at an intersection with US 41 (Tamiami Trail) in downtown Fort Myers. From the terminus, it runs briefly along Main Street and Monroe Street though historic downtown Fort Myers to State Road 82, where it becomes discontinuous. State Road 80 resumes at Fowler Street (US 41 Business/SR 739), where it runs east as a pair of two-lane, one-way streets weaving through central Fort Myers, with westbound lanes on First Street, and the eastbound lanes running on Second Street. The eastbound lanes rejoin the westbound lanes via Seaboard Street (a former Seaboard Air Line Railroad corridor) just east of Dean Park, forming the four-lane divided Palm Beach Boulevard. From there, it follows the Caloosahatchee River east out of the city, expanding to six lanes east of the Ortiz Avenue (CR 865) intersection in Tice. It has an interchange with Interstate 75 as it passes through the eastern suburbs of Fort Myers before being reduced to four lanes east of SR 31 before leaving Lee County and entering Hendry County. At its county seat, LaBelle, it serves as the town's main street and intersects SR 29. After LaBelle, it becomes a two-lane highway until an interchange with US 27, where the two roads run concurrently as a four-lane highway as it heads east towards Clewiston and the southern coast of Lake Okeechobee.

Palm Beach County

In Palm Beach County, it serves as a commuter route between South Bay and Belle Glade at the western end, growing suburbs Loxahatchee, Wellington, Royal Palm Beach and county seat West Palm Beach. In South Bay, US 27 heads south towards Miami, following the North New River Canal. Between Belle Glade and Loxahatchee, the roads are surrounded by sugarcane fields, with US 441 and US 98 both joining State Road 80 during this stretch. Lion Country Safari marks the beginning of a rural to urban transition of the road for the remainder of its journey. The road doubles from four to eight lanes in Royal Palm Beach, as the road serves as the border between Royal Palm Beach and Wellington. At the State Road 7 intersection, US 441 turns south towards Miami. The South Florida Fairgrounds and the Coral Sky Amphitheater, where the South Florida Fair takes place, are next on the route, just east of SR 7. After passing Florida's Turnpike, it gains two more lanes and becomes an expressway, with diamond interchanges with Jog Road, Haverhill Road and Military Trail. East of Military Trail, it loses a lane in each direction as it straddles the southern end of Palm Beach International Airport, where private aircraft are serviced, with commercial access to the airport available via SR 704A. It then approaches a bridge over the Tri-Rail main line as it intersects Interstate 95 at Exit 68, then becomes a four-lane road in several older, high-density neighborhoods in West Palm Beach. East of the Florida East Coast Railway bridge crossing, it intersects US 1 and SR 5, reducing to two lanes as it crosses Lake Worth Lagoon on two bridges, and ending on a roundabout with SR A1A in Palm Beach near the Mar-a-Lago estate.

History

The route of State Road 80 was largely built in the 1920s. The first vehicle to travel the route from Belle Glade to Palm Beach was in 1923. The section from Twenty Mile Bend to West Palm Beach was considered part of the Conners Highway, which opened on July 4, 1924. Segments west of Lake Okeechobee would be completed by 1926.

The route was first designated State Road 25 in 1923, running from Palm Beach to Punta Rassa. As a result of the 1945 Florida State Road renumbering, the route became State Road 80 from Fort Myers to Palm Beach, and the segment west of Fort Myers to Punta Rassa became State Road 867. (Ironically, State Road 25 still applies today to the concurrency with US 27 as that is now US 27’s hidden designation).

The segment between Belle Glade and Twenty Mile Bend, known as the Kenneth C. Mock Memorial Highway was completed in 1989, making SR 80 a four-lane divided highway between Belle Glade and West Palm Beach. Prior to this, SR 80 (and US 441) ran just to the south along what is now County Road 880. US 98, which previously ran along SR 700 (Conners Highway), would later be rerouted onto this route beginning around 2000.

Until 2002, Palm Beach County's Southern Boulevard was a four-lane road with a center left-turn lane, causing high gridlock due to the rapidly growing western suburbs of Loxahatchee, Royal Palm Beach and Wellington. The road was known as "Killer 80" due to its high fatality rate. In 2002, after many years of debate, the Florida Department of Transportation embarked on a $78 million project to upgrade and widen Southern Boulevard from I-95 to US 441/SR 7. Between 2003 and 2008, it was transformed into a limited-access highway with freeway-grade diamond interchanges at the most congested intersections, with traffic signals remaining at others.

State Road 80's routing through downtown Fort Myers has changed a few times over the years. When designated in 1945, State Road 80 terminated at First and Fowler Streets (which carried US 41 when it crossed the Edison Bridge). SR 80 would be extended through downtown in 1964 when US 41 was rerouted over the Caloosahatchee Bridge (with First Street also carrying the U.S. Route 41 Business route concurrently). In the 1980s, SR 80 was split into one-way street pairs from Monroe Street to Palm Beach Boulevard and Seaboard Street, with eastbound traffic using Second and Seaboard Streets, and with westbound traffic using First and Bay Streets. The segment between Monroe and Fowler Streets was relinquished to the city of Fort Myers on January 11, 2006 as part of the downtown redevelopment and streetscape effort, creating the gap in the route that exists today.

In Hendry County, a project to improve the intersection between SR 80 and US 27 and add an overpass was completed at the end of 2014.

Future

The two bridges crossing Lake Worth Lagoon, built in 1950, are currently in the planning stages for replacement, with construction expected to begin in 2015.