Polk commission approves major $88M County Road 557 expansion to help motorists heading to I-4


Due to extensive use by motorists near Haines City seeking an escape from heavy traffic on U.S. 27, pictured, Polk County commissioners approved a $88 million project to expand County Road 557 between Lake Alfred and Interstate 4. [FILE PHOTO/THE LEDGER]

Polk County officials pushed forward on an $88 million widening of County Road 557 from two to four lanes between Lake Alfred and Interstate 4 on Tuesday.

BARTOW — Five years ago, County Road 557 between Lake Alfred and Interstate 4 wasn’t on Polk County’s radar of local highway projects.

In just the past couple of years, county officials noticed the six-mile stretch of road was breaking down from motorists seeking an alternative to U.S. 27 for access to I-4, County Manager Bill Beasley said on Tuesday following the Polk County Commission meeting.


County officials responded by pushing forward an $88 million widening of County Road 557 from two to four lanes, the largest item on its current five-year infrastructure improvement plan, he said.

“Over the past couple years, it’s become very obvious a lot of traffic was using County Road 557 to get to I-4,” Beasley said. “A lot of them probably want to avoid U.S. 27.”

The road project illustrates how nimble Polk officials must be to keep pace with the changing needs in a rapidly growing county.

The County Commission took the first steps toward construction of the $88 million road project by approving the proposed realignment for the four-lane road and purchasing two Lake Alfred homes that will need to go for the new path.

The commission approved buying the residential properties of Alice Longo and William and Gretchen Black for $263,500 and $282,300, respectively. Both Buena Vista Drive properties lie at the southern end of County Road 557.


The county will need to buy 16 properties to clear a path for the expanded road, said Wade Allen, the county’s director of real estate services. The Longo and Black properties are the first two to be purchased since an Oct. 22 community meeting for local residents.

Both property owners have been very cooperative in negotiating the sale, he said, but others are holding out. The county may have to use its eminent domain power, a compulsory taking of private property in the public interest, to buy all the properties.

The commission also accepted the preliminary alignment for the four-lane County Road 557 proposed by Dewberry Engineers Inc. of Orlando. The county hired Dewberry for $1.1 million in December 2018 to do all the design work for the road.

The proposed alignment will run west of the existing road to minimize environmental impacts and the effect on local property owners, said Kevin Knudsen, a Dewberry vice president. The new road close to Lake Alfred will be a five-lane highway with a median turn lane, but most of the highway will be four lanes with a grass median.

The final design and property acquisition will take 18 to 24 months, Beasley said.

“I hope we can begin construction in two years,” he said.

Construction will take up to two years, Beasley said.

The new County Road 557 will tie in with improvements the Florida Department of Transportation has proposed at the I-4 interchange, he said. Both construction projects should be finished around the same time