State Road 704 (SR 704), also known as Okeechobee Boulevard, is a east–west boulevard in the

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

area, known for being dangerous to pedestrians and bicyclists. It extends from an intersection with SR 7 at the border of West Palm Beach and

Royal Palm Beach Royal Palm Beach is a village in southeast Florida, located within Palm Beach County. The population was measured at 34,140 in the 2010 census. It is part of the Miami Metropolitan Area. Despite its name, the village is located approximately fift ...

and just south of The Acreage at the western end to an intersection with SR A1A in Palm Beach at the east end.

Route description

State Road 704 begins at the intersection of Okeechobee Boulevard and State Road 7, with commercial areas surrounding three of the corners. SR 704 heads east through the suburban West Palm Beach area known as Century Village passing by strip malls and gated communities. Just east of its intersection with Jog Road, SR 704 crosses over Florida's Turnpike, and provides access to the turnpike just east of the bridge. At this point, Okeechobee Boulevard becomes a

stroad A stroad is a type of thoroughfare that is a mix between a street and a road. The word ''stroad'' is a portmanteau of ''street'' and ''road'', coined by American civil engineer and urban planner Charles Marohn in 2011, as a commentary about p ...

, commercial and development becomes denser, and the West Palm Beach skyline becomes visible. The stroad continues, passing through Haverhill Boulevard, Military Trail and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. East of Congress Avenue, which provides access to

Palm Beach International Airport Palm Beach International Airport is a public airport in Palm Beach County, Florida, located just west of the city of West Palm Beach, Florida, United States, which it serves as the primary airport for. It is also the primary airport for most o ...

, SR 704 heads towards an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95 and SR 9), crossing over it, and immediately crosses Clear Lake, with a diamond interchange with Australian Avenue at the eastern end of the lake. One block east of the interchange, SR 704 crosses railroad tracks owned by

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail line linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Tri-Rail ...

(formerly the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Miami Subdivision), and becomes a

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descripti ...

, as it travels along the southern end of downtown West Palm Beach, passing by CityPlace to the north and the Palm Beach County Convention Center to the south. East of the two complexes, Okeechobee Boulevard crosses the Florida East Coast Railroad, and then the southbound lanes of

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

(US 1), with the eastbound lanes passing by the northern end of

Palm Beach Atlantic University Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBA) is a private Christian university in West Palm Beach, Florida. The university's nine colleges focus on the liberal arts with a select collection of professional studies. In 2019, its undergraduate enrollme ...

from here to the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following t ...

. One block east of southbound US 1, SR 704 crosses the northbound lanes of US 1, with the westbound lanes becoming Lakeview Avenue. Two blocks east of northbound US 1, SR 704 crosses the

( Lake Worth) via the Royal Park Bridge, and enters Palm Beach as Royal Palm Way, and travels three blocks through the town before ending one block west of the ocean at SR A1A. West of the western terminus of SR 704, Okeechobee Boulevard continues for another , acting as the main east-west road of Royal Palm Beach and Loxhatchee Groves, until an intersection with Seminole Pratt Whitney Road in Loxahatchee. Just beyond the end of Okeechobee Boulevard (but accessible only from Southern Boulevard, US 98- US 441/ SR 80) is

Lion Country Safari Lion Country Safari is a drive-through safari park and walk-through amusement park located on over 600 acres in Loxahatchee (near West Palm Beach), in Palm Beach County, Florida. Founded in 1967, it claims to be the first 'cageless zoo' in the ...

, a

zoological park A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

through which visitors drive instead of walk.

History

SR 704 was established in the

1945 renumbering On June 11, 1945, Florida's state roads were renumbered. The old system numbered routes in the order they were legislated, while the new system used a grid. Notes See also *Florida State Roads The State Highway System of the U.S. sta ...

. The road was not designated as a state road in the pre-1945 system, and only known as a local road called Okeechobee Road.Routes 700-709
Retrieved 13 April 2010

Major intersections

County Road 704A

County Road 704A (CR 704A) is the official designation of Australian Avenue, a partially

limited access road A limited-access road, known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway, expressway, limited access freeway, and partial controlled access highway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which ...

connecting SR 708 (Blue Heron Boulevard) in Riviera Beach with US 98/ SR 80 (Southern Boulevard) and SR 807 (Congress Avenue) in Glen Ridge. The road was formerly State Road 704A (SR 704A). The southernmost serve

. North of its interchange with SR 704, Australian Avenue continues along the eastern shores of Clear Lake and Lake Mangonia, then northward as a surface road, passing through

Mangonia Park Mangonia Park is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is a part of Uptown West Palm, which also includes Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach. The population was 1,888 at the 2010 census. As of 2018, the population recorded by the ...

before reaching its northern terminus, an intersection with Blue Heron Boulevard ( SR 708) in Rivera Beach.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Commons category, Florida State Road 704

704 __NOTOC__ Year 704 ( DCCIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 704 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era be ...