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Plans for a toll road in eastern Polk County advanced last week with the release of four potential alignments a state agency is considering.

Representatives from Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise unveiled the four proposed paths during an online meeting Tuesday and an open house held Wednesday in Davenport. All four fall within a previously released study area, a swath of land stretching from west of Lake Wales toward U.S. 17-92 north of Davenport.

Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise, a division of the Florida Department of Transportation, is conducting an alternative corridor evaluation for the Central Polk Parkway East from State Road 60 to U.S. 17-92. That is the first of five phases in designing and building what the agency describes as a tolled, limited-access highway.

The Department of Transportation has been considering plans for an extension of the Polk Parkway since at least 2008. That toll road, completed in 1998, now covers 24 miles, looping south of Lakeland to connect to Interstate 4.

The projects were transferred to Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise in 2017. The agency is now constructing the first piece of the Central Polk Parkway, a 6.5-mile spur extending from the State Road 540 exit (Winter Lake Road) southeast to U.S. 17. The agency plans eventually to continue that segment from U.S. 17 to SR 60 near Connersville Road.

There are no current plans for a toll road along the stretch of SR 60 between Connersville and the start of the eastern leg near Lake Wales, Imran Ghani of Osiris9 Consulting said during Tuesday’s online session.

The Central Polk Parkway East “would serve as a high-speed, alternative travel route to U.S. 27, where heavy traffic congestion regularly impacts the communities now and is forecasted to get worse in the future due to population growth and increased travel demand,” a project summary states.

The agency conducted a feasibility study in 2018 to evaluate adding toll lanes on U.S. 27 and found that the idea was not financially feasible, said Jazlyn Heywood, a project manager for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise. The agency reevaluated the parkway extension from SR 60 to U.S. 17-92 in 2021 that had been approved a decade earlier.

The subsequent construction of homes and businesses along the route forced significant alignment, requiring an evaluation of alternative corridors, Heywood said.

The project will be funded through toll and concession revenues from Turnpike Enterprise highways, Ghani said. The agency has not estimated a total cost.

One corridor carries over

The study area is a roughly two-mile-wide swath. Its western edge runs roughly parallel to State Road and U.S. 17-92 before reaching the latter road just north of Davenport.

The eastern boundary of the study area bends around Mountain Lake Estates and juts near the northeast shore of Lake Pierce, running roughly north to the western edge of Lake Marion toward the northern boundary, just north of Ernie Caldwell Boulevard near Davenport.

All four routes begin at SR 60, just west of Lake Wales, before curving east to cross U.S. 27 and continuing north toward U.S. 17-92. The proposed alignments range in length from 22 miles to 27.62 miles.

Of the four potential routes, one is adapted from the corridor approved in 2011, following a project development and environmental study, Heywood said during Tuesday’s session. That alignment follows the westernmost course of the four.

That route, labeled Corridor A, hugs the western boundary of the study area for most of its course. The route briefly moves slightly east near Waverly Road before returning to the western boundary just south of Lake Hatchineha Road.

Corridor A is the only one that runs west of the Haines City Sand Mine and runs south of the CEMEX Davenport Sand Mine, making the southernmost connection to U.S. 17-92 more than a mile south of Ernie Caldwell Boulevard.

Corridor B follows a similar course until just north of Chalet Suzanne Road, where it veers east and then curves north to intersect with Corridor C, east of Lake Annie. The twin corridor heads due north through the middle of the study area before drifting toward the eastern boundary and running east of the Haines City Sand Mine.

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Corridor B wiggles west to skirt the edge of the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area, briefly separating from Corridor C and then reconnecting near the eastern boundary of the study area. The conjoined corridors curve north of the CEMEX Davenport Sand Mine and then connect with U.S. 17-92 less than half a mile north of Ernie Caldwell Boulevard.

Corridors C and D begin together near Lake Wales, departing from the other routes after crossing U.S. 27. The entwined corridors run east near Egg Farm Road, just north of Mountain Lake Estates, and then curve north before splitting near Lake Mabel Loop Road.

Corridor C then veers northwest to align with Corridor B, and the two routes remain mostly the same until the terminus at U.S. 17-92.

Corridor D follows the easternmost course, separating from Corridor C east of Lake Mabel and running north within about a half-mile or so of the study area’s eastern boundary. The corridor cuts through a wooded area north of Canal Road and slices through the western section of the Lake Marion Creek Wildlife Management Area, joining Corridors B and C just east of the CEMEX Davenport Sand Mine.

Heywood and Ghani fielded dozens of questions submitted in advance of Tuesday’s virtual meeting. One asked why the potential route has changed from plans adopted more than a decade ago, when the extension would have begun well east of U.S. 27.

The answer: “Growth in Polk County outpaced the ability to deliver the approved alignment on the east side from SR 60 to U.S. 17-92.”

A connection east of U.S. 27 was “evaluated and eliminated” through coordination with Lake Wales because it would be too disruptive to “existing land uses,” the presentation said. Each corridor would have a width of about 500 feet, including buffer land.

Potential impacts evaluated

In a summary of the four proposed routes, impacts to residential properties varied from a low of 68 for Corridor A, the westernmost path, to 121 for Corridor C. Impacts to commercial parcels ranged from 10 to 14.

The expected impacts to agricultural parcels were lowest for Corridor A (91) and highest for for Corridor C (116).

Corridor A would affect 30 approved developments, according to the Turnpike Enterprise’s analysis, compared with 13 for Corridor B, seven for Corridor C and four for Corridor D. For Corridor A, nine of the approved developments are in Dundee and eight are in Lake Wales. For Corridor B, seven of the approved developments are in Lake Wales.

Corridor D would disturb 335 acres of wetlands, the highest number of the four possible routes. Corridor A would affect the least, 183.5 acres. Corridor B would traverse the largest section of floodplains, nearly 500 acres.

To a question about possible abandonment of the plan, the Turnpike Enterprise responded that the project needs to meet environmental and financial feasibility guidelines to move forward.

The project would be broken into viable construction segments, the consultant said. Projects of this magnitude typically take four to five years, he said.

The virtual meeting drew 386 participants, and 318 people signed in to the open house in Davenport, said Yasir Mercado, a spokesperson for Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise. Public comments may be submitted online through Jan. 27 at www.centralpolkparkwayeast.com.

After the comment period closes, the Turnpike Enterprise will pick one corridor alternative and present it for further discussion at a public meeting tentatively planned for April. If the process identifies a feasible corridor, the agency can start a PD&E study to develop project alternatives.

Such a study would include additional public meetings and a formal public hearing. The final alternative corridor evaluation is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2025.

Funding for right-of-way access will be available in 2028, Ghani said.

The project is a collaboration among the Turnpike Enterprise and the cities of Davenport, Haines City, Lake Wales and Winter Haven, the towns of Dundee and Lake Hamilton, Polk County, the county’s Transportation Planning Organization and the Central Florida Regional Planning Council.