Florida State Road 528
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The Martin Andersen Bee Line Expressway (soon to be renamed the Beachline Expressway), also known as State Road 528, is a 'limited access' toll road connecting Interstate 4 at the International Drive tourist corridor in southwestern Orange County to SR A1A in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The road also serves the Orlando International Airport. The Bee Line was originally constructed by the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority or OOCEA in 1967 and extended from the former Orlando Jetport in the West to State Road 520 in the East. The road was originally constructed to allow easy access to the Kennedy Space Center, and still serves in this capacity today; in the years following the construction of the Walt Disney World Resort, it took on a new role: to shuttle tourists to and from the beaches and the large cruise ship terminal at Port Canaveral on the east coast of Florida.
In 1974, an extension of the Bee Line was constructed that took it eastward to its current west terminus at A1A as well as a second extension that took it west to Interstate 4. These extensions (known as Bee Line East and Bee Line West) were not built by the OOCEA, but rather by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise and the Florida Department of Transportation. At its completion, the Bee Line Expressway was a 32.6 mile limited-access toll road connecting Orlando with the Space Coast. It cost an estimated $26.3 million to construct.
External links
- Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority (http://www.expresswayauthority.com/)
- Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (http://www.dot.state.fl.us/turnpikepio/)
- Florida Department of Transportation (http://www.dot.state.fl.us/)