Флорида штатындағы SR 408 тас жолының сипаттамасы

Highway in Florida

SR 408 begins at Florida's Turnpike, heading east towards West Colonial Drive (SR 50) near Ocoee. After the interchange with Good Homes Road (exit 3), the tollway passes through the Hiawassee barrier toll, the first of four mainline toll barriers. From there, SR 408 serpentines eastward through the neighborhoods of Orlo Vista and Pine Hills making major junctions with State Road 435 (Kirkman Road), passing through the Pine Hills barrier toll east of Pine Hills Road, State Road 423 (John Young Parkway), and U. S. Route 441 (Orange Blossom Trail), with the Citrus Bowl being accessible from the Orange Blossom Trail exit. Motorists heading east enter the Orlando city limits at mile marker 8, where they are greeted with a view of the high rise skyline of Central Orlando. The East–West Expressway passes through a major stack interchange with Interstate 4 in Downtown and proceeds eastward to the Conway Toll Plaza, followed by major junctions with State Road 436 (Semoran Boulevard), and State Road 417 (Central Florida Greeneway). The route continues through the Dean Road Toll Plaza and the exits to State Road 434 (Alafaya Trail) and State Road 50 (East Colonial Drive). The tollway's eastern terminus is Challenger Parkway, however Challenger Parkway continues until Alafaya Trail. SR 408 runs almost entirely parallel to State Road 50 throughout its entire route.

There are four mainline toll plazas on the tollway. Each of them have at least two express lanes dedicated to E Pass/SunPass for electronic toll collection which do not require motorists to stop at a booth and lanes dedicated to cash collection. Excepting the Mills off ramp, which has only two lanes for exact change, the ramp toll plazas have both a lane dedicated to ETC and a lane dedicated to exact change only with no change provided. The current toll rates took effect in July 2012.

The Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority had been formed in 1963 for the purpose of building the Bee Line Expressway. In early 1966, while that road was still under construction, Governor Haydon Burns asked the OOCEA to look into an east–west freeway across downtown Orlando to relieve traffic on State Road 50 (Colonial Drive). An engineering study recommended a western terminus at SR 50 west of State Road 435 (Kirkman Road) and an eastern terminus at SR 50 east of Goldenrod Road (State Road 15A). One alternate ran close to SR 50, while the other – which was chosen by June 1969 – ran further south. Bonds were sold in May 1971. In December of that year, the OOCEA voted to name it the Spessard Lindsay Holland East–West Expressway, in honor of Spessard Holland, who had just retired from representing Florida in the U. S. Senate. Groundbreaking was held just east of Semoran Boulevard on February 5, 1972. The final design took SR 408 across Interstate 4 just south of Anderson Street. The interchange – a double trumpet – connected to I 4 south of Gore Street, and resulted in the closure of four of the six ramps at Gore Street, which had intersected I 4 with a six ramp partial cloverleaf. (The loops were in the southwest and southeast quadrants.) To the east, SR 408 crossed Lake Underhill. East of Goldenrod Road, the decision was made in 1970 to temporarily include three at grade intersections at Chickasaw Trail, Valencia College Lane and Millinocket Lane. In addition, the interchange with SR 417 was expanded. This resulted in the elimination of SR 4080 and the interchange with Valencia College Lane. Traffic to Valencia College was redirected to Chickasaw Trail and Dean Road. On October 13, 2016, Central Florida Expressway board members approved to rename a portion of SR 408 after professional golfer Arnold Palmer. State Representative Mike Miller and State Senator David H. Simmons sponsored legislation for renaming the road, which was signed into law by Governor Rick Scott on June 14, 2017. The section of SR 408 between Kirkman Road and Clarke Road was renamed the Arnold Palmer Expressway on July 1, 2017. A stack interchange with Interstate 4 near downtown Orlando replaced the original double trumpet interchange in recent years. The first construction phase began in April 2006 and was completed in November 2008. Due to a lack of funds, the rest of the interchange project was ultimately postponed until the I 4 Ultimate project. Following the first phase, the ramp that originally handled all traffic merging from I 4 only handled traffic from I 4 eastbound, which left abandoned lanes. A ramp stub was constructed in advance of the completion the conversion to stack interchange on SR 408 westbound. The Florida Department of Transportation was responsible for this project. On May 19, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis formally opened the reconstructed SR 408 ramps with I 4. This was completed as part of the acceleration of I 4 Ultimate improvement project as part of the lack of traffic in Florida due to stay at home orders that were implemented within the state of Florida during the COVID 19 pandemic.

The OOCEA 2025 Master Plan (2000) suggested extending SR 408 further east toward the west end of SR 520. In the OOCEA 2030 Master Plan, this proposed extension was further extended to I 95 in Brevard County. So far, the SR 408 Eastern Extension project has been put on hold. The alternative solution, dubbed the Colonial Parkway has been shelved by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE) so as of now the extension is still sitting on hold

Talks of extending SR 408 south past SR 528, Nova Road, down to US 192, named the Northeast Connector Expressway Extension (NECEE), a CF&M study done the Central Florida Expressway Authority. This further extension would take SR 408 from the Challenger Parkway Interchange with SR 50/East Colonial Drive over to the proposed terminus at SR 50 near the SR 50/SR 520 then down southward to US 192. But the Southward extensions won't become a reality until after 2040 since these are part of a development plan dubbed the North Ranch Master Plan in Osceola County

Florida's Turnpike Enterprise is currently planning to widen Florida's Turnpike from 8 to 12 lanes from SR 408 in Gotha to SR 50/West Colonial Drive near Oakland and Clermont which includes interchange improvements at Florida's Turnpike/SR 429(Daniel Webster Western Beltway) and SR 408 by constructing an 8 lane (4 lanes in both directions) Collector/Distributor System, connecting SR 408 with SR 429 without having to take Florida's Turnpike mainline, which helps drastically decrease the congestion and weaving between the two expressways on the Turnpike.

Challenger Parkway (local/non tolled) begins right after SR 408 ends at an interchange with SR 50. It then intersects with Woodbury Road then turns westward, intersecting with 2 streets with a traffic stop, Ingenuity Drive and Challenger Tech Court then ends at SR 434 (Alafaya Trail) in a traffic stop.