Полк Паркуэй: Тарихы мен қазіргі жағдайы

Highway in Florida
The Polk Parkway begins at Interstate 4 near the Hillsborough Polk County line west of Lakeland. Just east of Airport Road (exit 3), the highway passes a large building with a green glass facade, which is the corporate headquarters for Publix Supermarkets. Before reaching exit 4, the highway runs a half mile northeast of Lakeland Linder International Airport—a large general aviation airport—passing beneath the path of air traffic on Runway 5/23. Between Harden Boulevard (exit 5) and South Florida Avenue (exit 7), the Polk Parkway was built along the alignment of Drane Field Road, which is now truncated at Harden Boulevard and continues to South Florida Avenue as frontage roads along the Polk Parkway. The first mainline toll plaza is located between South Florida Avenue and Lakeland Highlands Road. After crossing De Castro Road, the Polk Parkway curves to the north, passing the only operating landfill in Polk County. Along the curve is the westbound exit and eastbound entrance of the SR 540 junction, which is the location of the planned interchange with the future Central Polk Parkway. The Polk Parkway continues north for the remainder of its length. About midway between Old Dixie Highway and Pace Road is the Eastern Toll Plaza.

The Polk Parkway was originally conceived in the 1950s as a circumferential route around Lakeland, and after several delays in planning due to funding shortfalls, it was revived as the Imperial Parkway by the Polk County Commission in 1986. Due to the delays, a proposal in the 1970s/1980s that would have connected the parkway with the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway never came to fruition. In the spring of 1990, the Florida Legislature led by Senate leader and Winter Haven resident Bob Crawford, incorporated the Polk Parkway into the Turnpike Expansion Program, a part of Senate Bill 1316. The Parkway's groundbreaking was on January 25, 1996. The western 7.5 mile (12 km) of the Parkway opened to traffic on August 9, 1998. The central section, approximately 10 mile (16 km) in length, opened to traffic on 2 August 1999. The easternmost 7.5 mile (12 km) of road opened to traffic on 12 December 1999, completing the highway at a cost of $490 million. In the late summer of 2009, the Turnpike began widening the Polk Parkway from Interstate 4 at Polk City south to Pace Road from two lanes to four lanes. This $48 million design build project includes construction of a SunPass only interchange at Pace Road (exit 23), featuring a modified cloverleaf design, with a 25 cent toll for the to and from the east (north) movement. The to and from the west (south) movement is not tolled as there is a mainline plaza to the west where the toll will be collected. The interchange opened on November 10, 2011, providing access to the new Florida Polytechnic University campus.

The Polk Parkway has become an important part of Polk County's transportation infrastructure as traffic has increased in the growing county. There have been several plans presented to the public regarding a proposed Heartland Parkway which would be a roughly 110 mile (177 km) parkway extending from the Polk Parkway to Southwest Florida near Ft. Myers. There has also been a proposal to construct an extension from the Polk Parkway encircling Winter Haven and connecting with I 4 near the Polk Osceola county line. Another proposed parkway would connect the southeast corner of the Polk Parkway with State Road 60 east of Lake Wales. These will be realized as the Central Polk Parkway (SR 570B), which is currently in the design phase.