U.S. Route 301 in Florida
runs from
the
Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical
Area northeast to the Greater Jacksonville
Metropolitan Area. The road is a spur of
U.S. Route 1 that
also shares by the DeSoto Trail until it reaches
Florida State Road 48 in
Bushnell.
The secret
designations for US 301 in Florida are Florida State Road 683 from Sarasota
to US 41 in
Bradenton
, Florida State
Road 55 from Bradenton to Palmetto
, Florida State Road 43 from US 41 in Palmetto, to Hillsborough CR 580, a.k.a.; Harney
Road in Thonotosassa
(where SR 43 becomes part of Harney Road), Florida State Road 41 from HCR 580 to
Zephyrhills, Florida State Road
39 from Zephyrhills to Moss Town, Florida State Road 35 from Clinton
Heights to Belleview, Florida
State Road 533 in Dade City, Florida State Road 700 from Clinton
Heights to Moss Town, Florida
State Road 500 from Leesburg to Ocala, Florida State Road 25 from Belleview
to near Sparr, Florida State Road
200 from Ocala to Callahan, and Florida State Road 15 from Callahan to
Folkston,
Georgia
.
Concurrencies include
US 41
between Bradenton and Palmetto,
US 98 between Clinton Heights (near
Dade City) and Trilacoochee (formerly known as Moss Town),
US 27 between Belleview and Ocala,
US 441 between Belleview
and Sparr,
US 27 between
Belleview and Ocala, and
US
Routes 1 and
US 23 north
of Callahan.
Route description
Sarasota through Hillsborough County
US 301 begins at
U.S. Route 41 along Washington Boulevard in
Sarasota. The first state highway it intersects with is
Florida State Road 780.
On the
Sarasota-Manatee County line, it also intersects with Florida State Road 610, which takes
commuters from University of South Florida
's Sarasota/Manatee Campus
, and Bradenton Airport
to Interstate
75. The next major intersection is
Florida State Road 70, and after this,
the road curves northwest before it eventually joins US 41(Hidden
SR 55) again in southern
Bradenton where they briefly overlap each other as they cross the
Manatee River.
US 301 makes a sharp right turn onto
Florida State Road 43 at a diamond
interchange, then crosses
Interstate 75 in Florida in
Ellenton at Exit 224.
Just north of the intersection of Florida State Road 62, the road passes
by the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad
Museum
and then intersects Manatee CR 6(Moccasin
Wallow Road). After the road crosses the Manatee-Hillsborough
County
Line, it passes by the Little Manatee
River State Park
, then intersects Florida State Road 674, and shares a
brief overlap with Hillsborough CR 672 between
Balm Road and Big Bend Road.
North of the intersection with Gibsonton Drive, and over the
Alafia River in
Riverview, Route 301 makes another turn
to the northwest, where it crosses I-75 again near Bradenton at
Exit 254. Beyond that, all access to I-75 is available from roads
that cross US 301 in one way or another, the nearest of which being
the
Lee Roy Selmon
Crosstown Expressway. Between I-75 and the Lee Roy Selmon,
though US 301 serves as the eastern terminus of
Florida State Road 676(Causeway
Boulevard), which takes motorists to
US BUS 41. The first
major intersection north of the Crosstown Expressway though is
Florida State Road 60.
At
Six Mile Creek, US 301 crosses over the tracks
of
CSX's "A-line", one of the
railroad company's main lines through Florida (also
used by
Amtrak's
Silver Star passenger
trains), and
Hillsborough CR 574,
which is only accessible from local connecting roads.
It then crosses the
first bridge over the Tampa Bypass Canal
before intersecting Florida State Road 574 in East
Lake-Orient Park
. At the Florida State Fairgrounds
, US 301 has an parclo interchange with Interstate 4 and U.S. Route
92.
A
reconstruction project took place in the early-2000's with
provisions for a future ramp from westbound US 92, that are
currently being obstructed by the Tampa Bypass Canal and land owned
by the Vandenberg
Airport
. Near the northern end of Vandenberg Airport,
US 301 crosses over a flood channel that runs between the
Hillsborough River and Tampa Bypass Canal on the southern border of
Temple
Terrace
.
Between Temple Terrace and Thonotosassa, the hidden
Florida State Road 43 leaves US 301
and joins
Hillsborough County
Road 580 at Harney Road, and the new hidden road becomes
Florida State Road 41. Former
sections of Harney Road are on hills on the northwest and northeast
corners, both of which were designed to go around a former railroad
bridge for a line that no longer exists. After crossing under I-75
with no access for the last time, and the Tampa Bypass Canal again
shortly afterwards, US 301 encounters the eastern terminus of
Florida State Road 582 and
its hidden County extension,
Hillsborough County Road
582.
Hillsborough County Road 43 ends at US 301 in Thonotosassa along
Harney Road, and Route 301 loses more of its easterly trajection.
Here, it
serves as the northern terminus of Mango Road, and later Stacy
Road, Sargeant Wilderness Memorial Park, and
extension of Hillsborough River State Park
. After passing by a field used for the
Tampa Machinery
Auctions, Route 301 officially runs along the eastern end of
Hillsborough River State Park, which it will eventually enter. The
same former railroad line that was encountered near Harney Road is
visible along the east side of Route 301 throughout the park and
beyond. The last moderate intersection US 301 encounters before
finally entering the park is the northern terminus of McIntosh
Road. One residential area can be found on a minor side road off to
the left, but the rest of the road is surrounded by parkland.
US 301
leaves the park almost as instantly as it crosses the Pasco County
line
Pasco County
After US
301 enters Pasco
County, Florida
, a slight curve to the right is a clear indication
that 301 is entering Zephyrhills, Florida
. Here, the road is known as Fort King
Highway and Gall Boulevard depending on the location. At some point
in the future US 301 will be the eastern terminus of
Florida State Road 56. For the time
being, the first major intersection is with Chancey Road which
eventaully becomes
Pasco County Road 535.
Florida State Road 39 intersects with
US 301 from the southeast. However, instead of terminating at Route
301, it becomes a hidden route north of the intersection and both
roads head straight north again. This trajectory is short lived
though when some local traffic is rerouted along 7th Street, and
both roads intersect South Avenue before moving slightly
northwest.
Downtown Zephyrhills is where US 301 serves as what would appear to
be the eastern terminus of
Florida
State Road 54, even though Fifth Avenue continues east of SR
54. Originally SR 54 extended east of US 301 along Fifth Avenue and
then to 12th Street before turning back east again at Eiland
Bouleavrd. In more recent times however, some maps have indictated
that it serves as a third hidden route along US 301. Southbound
motorists on US 301 have been encouraged to access SR 54 through
6th Street in recent years. After North Avenue, US 301 curves to
the northeast as
Florida State
Road 41 leaves Route 301 to the northwest as
Pasco
County Road 41, along Fort King Road. The rest of 301 is
known as Gall Boulevard until it moves deep into Dade City. After
the curve to the northeast ends the road intersects
Pasco
County Road 54, a county bypass and extension of SR 54
that leads to
US 98 on the Pasco-Polk County
border. From there, US 301 runs along a series of steep hills as a
four-lane divided highway with median openings that lack left-turn
lanes until it reaches
US
98(
SR 700) and the US
98-301 overlap begins.
Immediately after this, the road intersects
Alternate Pasco County Road 52 in Clinton Heights
(near Dade
City
). While some of the median openings are
still missing left-turn lanes, and is briefly replaced by a center
left-turn lane, the road becomes much more level at this
point.
In February 2007, US 98-301 was realigned to the
former truck
route, which is two lanes wide as of this writing. Efforts to
widen the road to four lanes has met stiff opposition from both the
public and the city. The former truck route and old US 98-301,
which is now
Florida State Road
39 as well as hidden state routes
hidden SRs 35-
700, split from each other at an
at-grade interchange. A local east-west street takes motorists to
southbound
Alternate Pasco County Road 35.
At the
intersection of ALT PCR 35 itself, the road moves from northeast
back to northwest again, and runs along the CSX S-Line, where it
encounters the eastern terminus of Florida State Road 52 and the Dade City Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
Depot
.

Owensboro Junction Trailhead
US 98 & 301 reunite with the former route, near a former citrus
plant. The first intersection after this is eastern
Pasco
County Road 578 and the next one is at the northern border
of the former citrus plant that leads to the
Pioneer
Florida Museum. As with the segment between Zephyrhills
and Dade City, the road is a hilly four-lane divided highway with
median openings that lack left-turn lanes, but the hills aren't as
steep, and the road isn't as straight. After passing by the
drive-in movie theater, US 98-301 intersection with Payne Road
which was part of the former
Pasco County Road
35B, There are some trailer parks, a golf course, and
small motels in this segment.
A sure sign the segment is about to end, is
when it passed by the Owensboro Junction Trailhead, of the Withlacoochee State Trail
. This was once a former junction between the
Atlantic Coast Line and
Seaboard Air Line
Railroads, until both were merged into the
Seaboard Coast Line and the segments
that crossed Routes 98 & 301 were abandoned. US 98 leaves US
301 in Trilacoochee, veering to the northwest and taking hidden
State Roads 39 and 700 with it.
State Road 35 becomes the sole hidden state
route as the road narrows down to two lanes before approaching
Florida State Road 575 and
Pasco CR 575 in Lacoochee
. It remains a two-lane road even after it
crosses the border with Hernando County, Florida
and over the Withlacoochee River.
Hernando to Marion Counties
In
Hernando County, US 301 continues its two-lane rural surroundings
until it approaches Florida State
Road 50 in Ridge Manor
, which while hardly urban, contains some local
businesses, and a large gas station, convenience store and car wash
on the northeast corner. North of the Whispering Oaks
Country Club, a gated commuity near SR 50, Route 301 passes by
random intersections of dirt roads, many of which are part of local
deed-restricted communities.
US 301
enters Sumter
County
by crossing over the Little Withlacoochee
River, where it shortly enters the unincorporated
community of Croom-a-Coochie, runs parallel to the
CSX's S-Line, and intersects with Sumter County
Road 675. In St. Catherine, 301
intersects with Sumter CR 673, which leads to local campgrounds
before reaching I-75, and almost instantly Sumter CR 478, which
leads to Webster
and Center Hill
.
In
Bushnell
, US 301 becomes Main Street. The first main
intersection there is Sumter County Road 476(Seminole Avenue), a
road that runs from northwestern Hernando County to north of
Webster. Sumter CR 48 shares a hidden concurrency with US 301,
that's not so hidden when it turns onto Sumter CR 476.
Florida State Road 48 runs north
towards West Belt Avenue, taking the DeSoto Trail with it, while US
301 turns east on East Noble Avenue, and crosses
CSX's S-Line, where it once shared a brief concurrency
with Sumter CR 48 until that designation turned south onto Florida
Avenue on its way to Lake County. From there, Route 301 shares an
even shorter concurrency with Sumter County Road 476, until it
curves back north.
Motorists know they're in
Sumterville when the
road passes by the ground of
Lake-Sumter Community
College's Sumter Campus. Shortly after this, US 301 intersects
Sumter County Road 470, and both roads share a concurrency.
The north
end of Florida State Road 471
is encountered after this, and then the concurrency with Sumter
County Road 470 breaks away to head east towards Okahumpka
. In Coleman
US 301 intersects with an abandoned railroad
right-of-way that carried the SAL/Amtrak
Silver Meteor until 1988. At
this point, the road is briefly named South Commercial Street until
it intersects with Warm Springs Avenue(Sumter County Road 514) and
then heads east along Warm Springs Avenue. The road curves north
again at the intersection of Sumter County Road 468.
Before US
301 enters Wildwood
, signs give advanced warnings of the road's
approach to the next to last interchange for Florida's
Turnpike
. Prior to this interchange, US 301 becomes a
four-lane highway, which is sometimes divided. The next major
intersecition is
Florida State
Road 44, and both lead to I-75.
The abundance of traveler services like
fast food restaurants, gas stations and motels,
west of here has made some people compare Wildwood to Breezewood,
Pennsylvania
. Wildwood has also been referred to as "The
Crossroads of Florida" due to this as well as the former Wildwood
Amtrak Station
, which now serves as a CSX maitenance yard.
North of
Wildwood, US 301 narrows back down to a two-lane highway with a
right-of-ways for future expansion on either sides, although after
entering Marion
County
, it briefly turns into a divided highway at
Marion County Road 42 in
Dallas, only to return to the two-lane road it was before.
North of
Summerfield
, the road takes a slight curve to the northwest and
then becomes a divided four-lane highway before curving back north
again. The road remains no less than four lanes wide
throughout the rest of Marion County, although just as in Pasco
County, the median is missing left-turn lanes at many of the
intersections.
Within
Belleview
, the road curves more to the west and after the
intersection with US
27-441 (SR 25-500) is co-signed with these routes
for a few blocks. However
Florida State Road 35 turns right at
the current eastern terminus of
Marion CR 484, and
US 27-301-441's new secret route becomes
SR 25-
500. After that the road curves more
to the north again. Near the right of way for the formerly proposed
Cross Florida Barge Canal,
the median for the road widens, but narrows back down to normal
again. Before it does, however, it intersects
Marion CR 328,
where a police station exists between the median. Supports for a
bridge that was intended to run over the canal exist behind the
police station. To the west of this intersection is the
Santos Trailhead of the
Cross Florida Greenway.
Seven blocks later,
the road enters the southeastern Ocala Delimited Area, but does not
yet enter the Ocala City
Limits
.
Ocala and points North
Before US
27-301-441 enters Ocala
it veers
off to the left at an intersection with Marion County Road
Old 441 (Southeast Lake Weir Avenue), a former segment of
US 441 that eventually leads to Ocala Union Station
. The first major intersection after this is
31st Street. Then it crosses under a railroad bridge before
reaching the City Limits and the intersections with the northern
terminus of
Marion CR 475 and crossing
Florida State Road 464 (17th Street).
US 27-301-441 intersects with
Florida State Road 200 and SR 200
becomes the new hidden state road until US 301 reaches US 1-23. But
it doesn't reach the heart of Ocala until the intersection with
Florida State Road 40 (West
Silver Springs Boulevard). After this, the road climbs an
embankment for a railroad bridge west of Ocala Union Station.
Five
blocks later, US 27 leaves
the US 301-441 overlap and takes SR 500 with it as they head northwest
towards Williston
, Perry
, Tallahassee
, and out of state towards Indiana
. Before US 301-441 leaves Ocala, it has an
intersection with
Marion County Road 200A
(Northwest 20th Street), which runs east and then north. This road
was the former State Road 200A and decommissioned
US Route
301 Alternate.
Another
county alternate of a state highway that the road intersects with
is Marion CR 25A (Northwest Gainesville Road),
which runs northwest through towns such as Zuber
, Lowell
, and
Reddick
. East of Zuber, the road intersects
Florida State Road 326, which
originally had a short concurrency, but now directly crosses US
301-441. South of the intersection with
Marion CR 329 is an
interchange with
U.S. Route 441 near Sparr
, where the
US 301-441 concurrency ends. US 441 moves northwest through Gainesville
, Lake City, Florida
and far north into Lake City, Tennessee
, while US 301 moves northeast.
In
Citra
, US 301
finally intersects with the north end of Marion CR 200A (Northeast
Jacksonville Road), but another short former segment (Northeast
19th Terrace) appears on the opposite side before the road passes
by the historic Melton-Shands House
and intersects with Marion CR 318.
After
Route 301 crosses the Alachua
County Line it runs along a four-lane causeway through
marshland before entering Island Grove, where the
road intersects with another former section (Southeast 201st
Terrace) and Alachua CR 325, which leads to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State
Park
. From there, the road makes a slight curve
to the right to cross over the railroad line. Both the tracks and
the road run along the east coast of
Lochloosa Lake in
Lochloosa.
The
interchange with Florida State
Road 20 in Hawthorne, Florida
, also includes the side road Southeast 221st
Street/Johnson Street, as well as the previously mentioned railroad
line in between that side road and US 301. On the other
hand, the intersections with Alachua CR 1474 in
Campville and
Florida State Road 26 in
Orange Heights have no interchanges
whatsoever, and the railroad line breaks away from the road moving
straight north.
However, US 301 heads back to the northwest
in Shenks, where it would otherwise take drivers
straight into Lake Altho and those tracks can be found again,
beneath the interchange with Florida State Road 24 in Waldo
.
Speed trap alley
Since US 301 is a popular short cut between Northeastern Florida
and the Gulf Coast region, a number of towns along the road have
been notorious
speed traps. The speed
limit drops from 65 mph to 30 mph in a matter of a few hundred
feet.
Many have accused the police in Waldo
, Starke
, Lawtey
, and
others of giving tickets simply to raise money. The
American Automobile
Association has strongly advised motorists to avoid this
stretch of the road.
Somewhere
north of Waldo, US 301 gains the name Walnut
Street, probably due to the fact that it crosses the
Bradford
County Line
. The first moderate intersection the road
encounters is the southern terminus of Bradford County Road 221,
which northbound traffic can access from a connecting ramp.
East of
Hampton Lake, it intersect Florida
State Road 18 between Hampton
and Hampton Beach. After it crosses a set of
railroad tracks in Starke, US 301 moves onto
Temple
Avenue.
From there, the road intersects Florida State Road 100, and a block
later the unmarked Florida State
Road 230, where it passes the Old Bradford
County Courthouse
, and serves as part of the boundary for the
Call Street
Historic District
. The next major intersection in Starke is
Florida State Road 16.
Old Bradford County Courthouse along US 301 in Starke
A Starke Bypass has been proposed for construction by the
Florida Department of
Transportation for the year 2010.
The interchanges that
already exist with US 441 near
Sparr
, FL 20 in Hawthorne
, and FL 24 in
Waldo could also be used if the state were to upgrade the road as a
freeway. The next town over is Lawtey, which contains
intersections with the eastern terminus of Bradford County Road 225
and then crosses Bradford County Road 125.
Metropolitan Jacksonville to Georgia
US 301
cuts through the northwest corner of Clay County,
Florida
with only one moderate intersection; County
Road 218. After this, the road enters Duval
County, Florida
. As the road enters
Maxville, it shares a brief concurrency
with
Florida State Road 228.
After whizzing through
Fiftone the road encounters
a large railroad yard on the east side before the
partial-cloverleaf interchange with
Interstate 10 in Florida.
In
Baldwin
US 301 crosses railroad tracks that serve the
suspended Amtrak Sunset Limited before making a right
turn at a concurrency with US
90 for several blocks. Immediately after another
railroad crossing, both US 90 and 301 narrow down to two lanes at
the east end of this concurrnecy.
US 301 remains a two-lane rural highway
until it reaches Callahan
where it crosses over a railroad bridge and gets
the name West First Avenue. US 301 becomes East First Avenue
at Booth Street before the intersection with
US 1/
23.
Here, SR A1A/200 continue running along East First
Avenue toward Fernandina Beach
, while US 301 becomes part of a three route
overlap with US 1-23 between Callahan, and Folkston,
Georgia
.
References
External links