State Road 56 marker

State Road 56

SR 56 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by FDOT
Length6.732 mi[1] (10.834 km)
ExistedMarch 28, 2002[2]–present
Major junctions
West end SR 54 / CR 54 in Wesley Chapel
Major intersections I-75 in Wesley Chapel
East end US 301 in Zephyrhills
Location
CountryUnited States
StateFlorida
CountiesPasco
Highway system
← SR 55→ SR 57

State Road 56 (SR 56) is a six-lane state highway 6.7 miles (10.8 km) in length that runs from SR 54 east to US Highway 301 (US 301) in Zephyrhills.

Route description

SR 56 begins at a three-way intersection with SR 54. At this point, SR 54 makes a sharp northward turn while SR 56 continues straight on the same roadway.[3] The state road at the beginning of its route is a six-lane avenue that passes through a rural area of Wesley Chapel.[4] After 0.9 miles (1.4 km), SR 56 comes to an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75).[5] The on-ramps allow access to both northbound and southbound I-75. After its intersection with I-75, SR 56 enters the commercial district of Wesley Chapel.[6] It travels 2.1 miles (3.4 km) through the town before reaching a four-way intersection with SR 581.[7] After this intersection, the speed limit increases to 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), and SR 56 travels another 3.8 miles (6.1 km) through rural Wesley Chapel before approaching an intersection with Meadow Pointe Boulevard.[8][9] The road continues to pass through rural surroundings, and crosses a pair of bridges over the New River (a tributary to the Hillsborough River), entering Zephyrhills, where it has one last major intersection with Morris Bridge Road (County Road 579, CR 579) before terminating at US 301 across from Festival Park.

History

The first segment of SR 56, which stretched from SR 54 to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard (SR/CR 581), opened on March 28, 2002, after three years of construction. The highway allows a more-direct access to I-75 two miles (3.2 km) north of the northern terminus of I-275, as opposed to SR 54, which parallelled I-75 for about three miles (4.8 km) before meeting at its interchange.

The first phase of expansion, from Bruce B. Downs to Meadow Pointe Boulevard, began construction in March 2008 to mark the imminent opening of the Shops at Wiregrass.[10] On July 31, 2010, after numerous delays, this extension of SR 56 opened for vehicular traffic. An extension to US 301 in Zephyrhills was being planned by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), and has been part of the plan since the highway's conception.[11] The project was previously expected to be completed by the end of 2019, but finally reached US 301 on July 10, 2019.[12]

A diverging diamond interchange with I-75 was initially proposed in May 2018;[13] construction on the revamped interchange began in February 2019 and was completed in 2022.[14]

Major intersections

The entire route is in Pasco County.

Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
Wesley Chapel0.0000.000
 SR 54 west (Wesley Chapel Boulevard)

 CR 54 east (Wesley Chapel Boulevard)		Western terminus
0.8801.416 I-75 – Ocala, Tampa, St. PetersburgExit 275 on I-75; diverging diamond interchange
2.9504.748

 SR 581 north to SR 54

 CR 581 south		Original eastern terminus
6.73210.834
 Meadow Pointe Boulevard to SR 54		Temporary eastern terminus
Zephyrhills CR 579 (Morris Bridge Road)
US 301 (Gall Boulevard)Permanent eastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. 1 2 "FDOT straight line diagrams". Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Motorists Overjoyed". St. Petersburg Times. March 29, 2002. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
  3. ↑ Google. "State Rd 56, Florida" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
  4. ↑ Google (March 2011). "State Rd 56, Wesley Chapel, Florida". Google Street View. Google.
  5. ↑ Google. "Wesley Chapel Blvd to State Rd 56" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
  6. ↑ Google (February 2023). "State Rd 56, Wesley Chapel, Florida". Google Street View. Google.
  7. ↑ Google. "State Rd 56 to State Rd 56" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
  8. ↑ Google (February 2023). "State Rd 56, Wesley Chapel, Florida". Google Street View. Google.
  9. ↑ Google. "State Rd 56 to Meadow Pointe Blvd" (Map). Google Maps. Google.
  10. ↑ Wiatrowski, Kevin (March 18, 2008). "S.R. 56 gets scooped for extension". The Tampa Tribune. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  11. ↑ Yap, Chuin-Wei (October 20, 2006). "State Road 56 extension to start by spring". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  12. ↑ "New 4-lane road in Pasco County connects drivers to I-75". WFTS. July 9, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Florida has a gem of an idea to move traffic on and off I-75. It's called diverging diamonds". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
  14. ↑ "Construction On Diverging Diamond Underway In Wesley Chapel". WUSF News. February 25, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
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