Four years after county crews opened a large section of Caldwell Boulevard in Polk County, a ribbon was once again strung across the roadway, then ceremonially cut.
- Extension runs from Ball Road to U.S. 17-92
- Land for extension donated by property owner
- Cost for extension totalled $27 million
The road, seen as an alternate to Ronald Reagan Parkway, now fully connects U.S. 27 to U.S. 17-92 -- quite an accomplishment, according to Polk county Roads and Drainage spokesperson Jay Jarvis.
"It's a really big deal," said Jarvis. "The intent of it was not only for economic development to allow development to occur on their corridor, but also to try and keep traffic or allow traffic -- local traffic -- to stay off U.S. 27 and give people another way of basically going between 27 and 17-92"
The land for the section of Caldwell Boulevard from Ball Road/SR 547 to US 17-92 was donated to the county by the property owner. Construction on Ernie Caldwell Boulevard as a whole totaled $27 million.
Now that this project is complete, the county will review its infrastructure priority list. Jarvis says areas in Winter Haven and Auburndale have the greatest need.
"These are areas that are moving forward with development and seem to be kind of the hot spots right now," said Jarvis. "And so I think you're going to see the potential, it all comes from funding available, to try to improve the roads and infrastructure in that area."