Florida State Road 44
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the state road from Crystal River to New Smyrna Beach. For the county roads numbered 44, see County Road 44 (Citrus County, Florida) and County Road 44 (Lake County, Florida).
  State Road 44 |
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| Length: | 115.25[1] mi (185.47 km) | ||||||||||||
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| Formed: | 1945 renumbering (definition) | ||||||||||||
| West end: |  US 19 in Crystal River |
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| Major junctions: |
 I-75 near Wildwood US 441 from Leesburg to near Mount Dora I-4 near DeLand |
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| East end: |   US 1/SR A1A in New Smyrna Beach |
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State Road 44 (SR 44) is an east-west state highway in the U.S. state of Florida. It runs from Crystal River on the Gulf of Mexico east to New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Inverness, Wildwood, Leesburg and DeLand.
A section in Lake County, between eastern Leesburg and a point north of Mount Dora, is concurrent with U.S. Highway 441 (SR 500).[1] This concurrency is not signed; signs on US 441 mark it as TO SR 44. The former alignment of SR 44 in that area is now mostly County Road 44, which runs north of Lake Eustis, on the other side as US 441 and current SR 44.
A former western extension of SR 44 from Crystal River to the Gulf of Mexico is now Citrus County Road 44. In some locations, it is signed as County Road 44W.
[edit] History
In Lake County, SR 44 originally passed through downtown Leesburg on Main Street, merging with U.S. Highway 441 (SR 500) east of downtown. It then split to the north on current County Road 44, passing north of Lake Eustis. North of Eustis, it turned southeast on present County Road 452, merging with State Road 19 into downtown Eustis, where it turned east on Orange Avenue to rejoin current SR 44 east of Eustis.[2]
The current alignment around the south side of Leesburg was taken over ca. 1986.[3] It had previously been State Road 468 from the west end to U.S. Highway 27 (SR 25) and State Road 33 from roughly Canal Street east to Main Street,[2] but was given to the county by the early 1980s.[3]
At some point, SR 44 from U.S. Highway 441 (SR 500) east of Leesburg to State Road 19 north of Eustis was given to the county and numbered County Road 44; the route via US 441 and SR 19 south of Lake Eustis became SR 44. CR 44 has since been realigned to bypass Eustis to the north.
SR 44 was realigned around downtown Eustis in 2005,[3] taking over what had been County Road 44B between US 441 and SR 44 east of Eustis. The Florida Department of Transportation gave SR 44 west of CR 44B to Lake County. CR 44B had been marked from US 441 as a bypass to SR 44 east and from SR 44 as a bypass to US 441 south, as part of a longer bypass of Eustis also including County Road 44 north and west to SR 19.
[edit] Major intersections
- Western terminus: US 19/98
- CR 468(West Norvelle Bryant Highway)
- CR 491(Lecanto Highway)
- US 41 Concurrency in Inverness.
- I-75
- US 301
- US 27(14th Street)
- US 441
- SR 19
- CR 42
- US 17/92 (Woodland Boulevard)
- I-4
- SR 415
- I-95
- US 1
- Eastern terminus: SR A1A
[edit] References
- ^ a b FDOT GIS data
- ^ a b Florida Department of Transportation, General Highway Map, Lake County, Florida, February 1969 (reprinted September 1978)
- ^ a b c Florida Department of Transportation, Pavement Management Office Report - Lake County (PDF)
