Florida State Road 80 - History

History

The section from 20 Mile Bend to West Palm Beach was opened as Conners Highway on July 4, 1924.

From 1923 to the 1945 renumbering, the road was known as State Road 25, and in the reassignment, the portion from US 41 in Fort Myers east to Palm Beach was transferred over to the new SR 80, with the sections of old SR 25 west of US 41 reassigned to SR 867.

Until 2002, Palm Beach County's Southern Blvd. was a four lane road with a center left-turn lane, causing high gridlock due to the rapidly growing western suburbs of Loxahatchee, Royal Palm Beach and Wellington. The road was known as "Killer 80" due to its high fatality rate. In 2002, after many years of debate, the Florida Department of Transportation embarked on a $78 million project to upgrade and widen Southern Boulevard from I-95 to US 441/SR 7. Between 2003 and 2008, it was transformed into a limited-access highway with freeway-grade diamond interchanges at the most congested intersections, with traffic signals remaining at others.

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