State Road 551 (SR 551), locally known as Goldenrod Road and Palmetto Avenue, forms a north–south surface street bypass of

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

to the east. A

Central Florida Expressway Authority The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) is a highway authority responsible for construction, maintenance and operation of toll roads in six counties of Greater Orlando (Lake, Orange, Osceola, Polk, Seminole, and Brevard Counties). It was ...

project known as Goldenrod Road Extension connects to SR 551 just north of

SR 15 Route 15, or Highway 15, can refer to: For roads named A15, see A15 roads. International * Asian Highway 15 * European route E15 * European route E015 Australia New South Wales * Hunter Expressway * New England Highway and other local Ne ...

and extends it south to

SR 528 The following highways are numbered 528: Canada *Alberta Highway 528 * Ontario Highway 528 ** Ontario Highway 528A United States

* * * * * * * * {{Road index, 528 ...

(Beachline Expressway). South of this interchange, the road becomes known as Heintzelman Boulevard and ends south of Orlando International Airport. While SR 551 is maintained by the

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of t ...

, the southern extension is a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically ...

owned and operated by the

(CFX). A toll is required to drive only the section between State Road 528 and Hazeltine National Drive; the rest can be driven without paying.

Route description

The Extension begins at Cargo Road in Orlando International Airport, traveling north for 0.3 miles before an interchange with the five-ramp partial cloverleaf at State Road 528. The next 1.2 miles northward is tolled, with the barrier toll, and then the Extension intersects with Hazeltine National Drive and Lee Vista Boulevard. North of these intersections, there are median breaks for several more intersections, as the road enters a newly developed area, heading towards Hoffner Avenue ( State Road 15). At Hoffner Avenue, the Extension heads towards its northern terminus at Goldenrod Road ( State Road 551), continuing north as SR 551. Despite SR 551 using the older Goldenrod Road to reach Hoffner Avenue, the main route between Hoffner Avenue and Goldenrod Road is via the Extension, and so it is signed TO SR 551 from Hoffner Avenue. From the south end, at Cargo Road, Heintzelman Boulevard continues south around the east side of the airport, including two tunnels under

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

s. South of the airport terminals, it curves west to meet Jeff Fuqua Boulevard, which runs from the airport south to Boggy Creek Road (CR 530) and State Road 417. The southern extension is not assigned a state road number, but the Central Florida Expressway Authority's website displays a shield for State Road 551 Toll. The toll currently costs $0.50 and can be paid with cash, an E-Pass or Uni transponder issued by CFX, or a SunPass transponder issued by the

's Florida Turnpike Enterprise. Although operated by CFX, the money collected at this toll is only used to fund the Extension and is not used for any other CFX roads; conversely, money collected elsewhere on the CFX system is not used for the Extension. Once the cost of building the road is paid off, the road will be transferred to the City of Orlando and the toll will be removed.

History

SR 15A was assigned on December 5, 1947 along pre-1945 State Road 287. It was defined as beginning at a point on

in Section 23, T 23 S, R 30 E and running North approximately nine miles to intersection with SR 426 in Section 2, T 22 S, R 30 E. Since then, two changes have been made: the number was changed to SR 551 in the early 1980s, and the northernmost piece was moved from Goldenrod Road to Palmetto Avenue to avoid two curves. Construction on the southern extension began in 2001. It opened March 12, 2003, with a total cost of $38 million. The Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority, predecessor to the CFX, built the road in partnership with the City of Orlando,

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, and several private

developer Developer may refer to: Computers * Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web d ...

s in the area, in order to get it done quickly.Expressway Navigator, summer 2003
( PDF)

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=inline, title
SR 551 (Goldenrod Road) – Central Florida Expressway Authority

551 __NOTOC__ Year 551 ( DLI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 551 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era beca ...