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Florida State and County Roads
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State Road 78 is the Florida Department of Transportation designation for three separate east–west sections of a road that was once a single stretch of road extending from the Gulf Coast of Florida to the northern tip of Lake Okeechobee. In the 1980s, two segments of the route were removed from state maintenance to county maintenance (and the road designations were changed to reflect the action); more recently, SR 78 signs disappeared from the four-mile-long stretch of US 27/SR 25 that doubled as the State Road. All three sections are signed east–west, even though the easternmost section is actually a north–south route.
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The current western terminus of the westernmost piece of SR 78 is an intersection of Stringfellow Road (CR 767) and Pine Island Road in Cape Coral. State Road 78 lies along Pine Island Road (in Cape Coral) and Bayshore Road (in North Fort Myers, Florida and River Road in Alva, Florida with a short merge at SR 31 near Lee County Arena and the northern shore of the Caloosahatchee River near Owl Creek. SR 78 picks back up from CR 31 and continues to the next county (Hendry County, Labelle, FL) The westernmost section of the present-day SR 78 is 39 miles (63 km) long from Pine Island through Alva, entirely within Lee County.
The 14-mile-long central east–west section of the present-day State Road 78 extends from SR 29 four miles (6 km) northeast of North La Belle to an intersection with US 27/SR 25 midway between Citrus Center and Moore Haven. In between is the town of Ortona. The central section of SR 78 is entirely within a part of Glades County dedicated to the growth of foliage house plants.
The 34-mile-long easternmost section of State Road 78 is signed east–west, even though the bulk of the road is north–south. This stretch follows the western and northern edge of the Lake Okeechobee wetlands. The southern (“western”) terminus of this segment is an intersection with US 27/SR 25 near Moore Haven. Motorists driving “east” (actually north) on SR 78, travel through Sportman Village before visiting the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation and Buckhead Ridge before reaching the northern (“eastern”) terminus, an intersection with US 98 (SR 700)-US 441 (SR 15) near Eagle Bay in the northern tip of Lake Okeechobee, roughly three miles to the south of Okeechobee.
In the late 1970s, FDOT started to put into motion a sequence of events that ultimately resulted in the removal of dozens of miles of roadway from the State maintenance list to county maintenance. Entire State Roads disappeared as their FDOT designations were replaced by County Road signage, while other State Roads had only parts become County Roads (usually with no change in the numbering).
In the 1970s, State Road 78 extended from Pine Island Center, near Pine Island Sound on the Gulf Coast to the northernmost part of Lake Okeechobee. In the 1980s, two sections were transitioned to county maintenance:
• The westernmost six miles (from Pine Island Center to Cape Coral), also known as Northwest Pine Island Road, became Lee County Road 78 (Stringfellow Road, the former State Road 767 running the length of Pine Island and Sanibel Island, became Lee County Road 767).
• North River Road (22 miles of zigzagging road between SR 31 and SR 29) was converted from SR 78 to Lee County Road 78 and Hendry County Road 78, and State Road 78 signs were removed from stretches of SR 29 and 31 that used to overlap SR 78.