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A portion of State Road 33 that still looks like a two-lane country road is about to be reconstructed to accommodate nearly two decades of growth that includes Florida Polytechnic University, the Bridgewater community and a mushrooming of warehouses.
The roadway will be four-laned between Old Combee Road and Firstpark Boulevard South (see map below) with 10-foot multi-use trails, a roundabout at Combee Road, noise walls and lighting.
When finished, the speed limit will be reduced from 60 to 45, “and it will greatly improve mobility and safety in this entire rapidly growing area,” said Chuck Barmby, the city of Lakeland’s business development and transportation manager.
Why this is important: Since 2006, the three-mile section of roadway has been designated as insufficient to handle the increased traffic as pastures and farmland gave way to subdivisions, a university and distribution centers.
“In terms of duration, this is the largest project we’ve had in the city of Lakeland, so this is big,” Barmby told city commissioners when they discussed the project Friday.
The $184 million project is part of a larger package that includes realigning the Interstate 4/State Road 33 interchange and placing wildlife crossings over the interstate and under SR 33. It’s included in the Moving Florida Forward initiative to jumpstart critical highway construction.
January start: Work is scheduled to start next month, beginning with work on exit ramps at the I-4/SR 33 interchange, he said. Completion is projected for 2029.
City commissioners on Monday voted unanimously to allocate $3 million to the project. The funding includes $1.39 million in impact fees from nearby projects, $1 million that is no longer needed for the widening of Lakeland Hills Boulevard and $634,401 that was set aside as part of a development agreement for USF Lakeland, which later became Florida Poly.
The funding package “is expected to reduce the amount of federal funds that will otherwise have to be supplemented by the Polk Transportation Planning Organization in exchange for other future sidewalk, trail or transit priorities that could be requested by the city,” the City Attorney’s Office wrote.
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One of dozens, if not hundreds, of overdue road projects. How about an update on the Pipkin Rd expansion? How long has that been going on?