Highlights
Florida's Turnpike opened on Jan. 25, 1957 as a 110-mile highway between the Golden Glades interchange in Miami and Fort Pierce.
Today, Florida's Turnpike system consists of 460 miles of roads, including the mainline from Miami to I-75 north of Orlando; the Homestead Extension, and the Sawgrass Expressway, both in South Florida; the Seminole Expressway, the Beachline Expressway, the Southern Connector Extension of the Central Florida GreeneWay, all in the Orlando area; the Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay area; and the Polk Parkway near Lakeland.
There are eight service plazas located approximately every 45 miles along the turnpike with facilities...
Today, Florida's Turnpike system consists of 460 miles of roads, including the mainline from Miami to I-75 north of Orlando; the Homestead Extension, and the Sawgrass Expressway, both in South Florida; the Seminole Expressway, the Beachline Expressway, the Southern Connector Extension of the Central Florida GreeneWay, all in the Orlando area; the Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay area; and the Polk Parkway near Lakeland.
There are eight service plazas located approximately every 45 miles along the turnpike with facilities...
Florida's Turnpike opened on Jan. 25, 1957 as a 110-mile highway between the Golden Glades interchange in Miami and Fort Pierce.
Today, Florida's Turnpike system consists of 460 miles of roads, including the mainline from Miami to I-75 north of Orlando; the Homestead Extension, and the Sawgrass Expressway, both in South Florida; the Seminole Expressway, the Beachline Expressway, the Southern Connector Extension of the Central Florida GreeneWay, all in the Orlando area; the Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay area; and the Polk Parkway near Lakeland.
There are eight service plazas located approximately every 45 miles along the turnpike with facilities ranging from gas stations and restaurants to picnic tables and restrooms.
On average, 1.8 million motorists use Florida's Turnpike each day. Annual toll revenues have grown from $3.6 million in 1957 on that original 110-mile stretch to $633 million in 2006 on the turnpike's expanded network of 460 miles of roads.
In 1999, SunPass was introduced, allowing drivers to pay tolls electronically from a prepaid account and avoid stopping at toll plazas to throw coins in a basket. SunPass relies on a windshield-mounted transponder about the size of a deck of cards. The toll rate on Florida's Turnpike falls slightly below the median when compared with other state toll road facilities, which range from two cents per mile to 18 cents per mile.
In March 2004, the Florida Legislature authorized a plan to raise turnpike toll rates to 7.5 cents per mile to keep up with inflation and fund the state's growing transportation needs. The increase, which amounts to about a quarter at each toll plaza, affects cash customers only. SunPass tolls remain at previous rates.
The turnpike was the fastest road construction project of its day. The first 110-mile stretch cost $62 million and took 18 months to open. That's a bargain compared with the nearly $500 million being spent to widen 26 miles of the turnpike through Broward, which is expected to take seven to 10 years.
When the first stretch of the turnpike was built, it didn't require the purchase of expensive property. Most of the land was rural. Cattle tunnels were built beneath the highway where the road split vast dairy lands in South Florida.
The original plan for the turnpike was to run near the route occupied today by I-95. But Hamilton Forman, a dairy farmer and one of Broward's most powerful political figures, had a different vision after he saw the impact of roads in Los Angeles.
Forman and other landowners sued because the turnpike would have left much of their land inaccessible. The state backed down and moved the turnpike west of U.S. 441. The change also allowed the state to build I-95 in eastern Broward and Palm Beach counties several years later.
Another route change would pave the way for Disney World several years later. Orlando attorney William H. "Billy" Dial, a member of the powerful State Road Board, persuaded then-Gov. Leroy Collins to divert the turnpike from Fort Pierce to Orlando after consultants said the new route would generate enough tolls to pay for the highway.
In 1963, Walt Disney and his staff flew over Central Florida to scout locations for his new theme park. They saw a giant X where the new turnpike crossed the future Interstate 4 and thousands of acres of undeveloped land to the south that would later become home to Disney World.
By the late '70s, the South Florida stretch of the turnpike carried more commuters headed to work than truckers or tourists. Coin-toss baskets replaced the old fare cards, and toll plazas were built on the highway in place of toll booths at every exit to ease backups.
In the mid '80s, legislators debated whether to discontinue the tolls because the original bonds had been paid off. In 1990, they voted to keep the tolls and use the money to build more than $1 billion in new toll roads and expand the turnpike in South Florida. That decision all but guaranteed that the turnpike will remain a toll road, fueling the addition of about 150 miles of new toll roads and positioning the turnpike to alter the landscape far into the future.
In 2001, the turnpike became Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, free of many bureaucratic rules. Under the new agency, projects must be paid off in 22 years instead of the previous 10 years.
Today, Florida's Turnpike system consists of 460 miles of roads, including the mainline from Miami to I-75 north of Orlando; the Homestead Extension, and the Sawgrass Expressway, both in South Florida; the Seminole Expressway, the Beachline Expressway, the Southern Connector Extension of the Central Florida GreeneWay, all in the Orlando area; the Veterans Expressway and the Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa Bay area; and the Polk Parkway near Lakeland.
There are eight service plazas located approximately every 45 miles along the turnpike with facilities ranging from gas stations and restaurants to picnic tables and restrooms.
On average, 1.8 million motorists use Florida's Turnpike each day. Annual toll revenues have grown from $3.6 million in 1957 on that original 110-mile stretch to $633 million in 2006 on the turnpike's expanded network of 460 miles of roads.
In 1999, SunPass was introduced, allowing drivers to pay tolls electronically from a prepaid account and avoid stopping at toll plazas to throw coins in a basket. SunPass relies on a windshield-mounted transponder about the size of a deck of cards. The toll rate on Florida's Turnpike falls slightly below the median when compared with other state toll road facilities, which range from two cents per mile to 18 cents per mile.
In March 2004, the Florida Legislature authorized a plan to raise turnpike toll rates to 7.5 cents per mile to keep up with inflation and fund the state's growing transportation needs. The increase, which amounts to about a quarter at each toll plaza, affects cash customers only. SunPass tolls remain at previous rates.
The turnpike was the fastest road construction project of its day. The first 110-mile stretch cost $62 million and took 18 months to open. That's a bargain compared with the nearly $500 million being spent to widen 26 miles of the turnpike through Broward, which is expected to take seven to 10 years.
When the first stretch of the turnpike was built, it didn't require the purchase of expensive property. Most of the land was rural. Cattle tunnels were built beneath the highway where the road split vast dairy lands in South Florida.
The original plan for the turnpike was to run near the route occupied today by I-95. But Hamilton Forman, a dairy farmer and one of Broward's most powerful political figures, had a different vision after he saw the impact of roads in Los Angeles.
Forman and other landowners sued because the turnpike would have left much of their land inaccessible. The state backed down and moved the turnpike west of U.S. 441. The change also allowed the state to build I-95 in eastern Broward and Palm Beach counties several years later.
Another route change would pave the way for Disney World several years later. Orlando attorney William H. "Billy" Dial, a member of the powerful State Road Board, persuaded then-Gov. Leroy Collins to divert the turnpike from Fort Pierce to Orlando after consultants said the new route would generate enough tolls to pay for the highway.
In 1963, Walt Disney and his staff flew over Central Florida to scout locations for his new theme park. They saw a giant X where the new turnpike crossed the future Interstate 4 and thousands of acres of undeveloped land to the south that would later become home to Disney World.
By the late '70s, the South Florida stretch of the turnpike carried more commuters headed to work than truckers or tourists. Coin-toss baskets replaced the old fare cards, and toll plazas were built on the highway in place of toll booths at every exit to ease backups.
In the mid '80s, legislators debated whether to discontinue the tolls because the original bonds had been paid off. In 1990, they voted to keep the tolls and use the money to build more than $1 billion in new toll roads and expand the turnpike in South Florida. That decision all but guaranteed that the turnpike will remain a toll road, fueling the addition of about 150 miles of new toll roads and positioning the turnpike to alter the landscape far into the future.
In 2001, the turnpike became Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, free of many bureaucratic rules. Under the new agency, projects must be paid off in 22 years instead of the previous 10 years.
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