Florida State Road 26
 State Road 26 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 SR 26 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by FDOT | ||||
| Length | 62.172 mi[1] (100.056 km) | |||
| Existed | 1945–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end |     US 19 / US 27 Alt. / US 98 in Fanning Springs | |||
 US 129 in Trenton US 27 / US 41 in Newberry I-75 in Gainesville   US 441 / SR 20 / SR 24 in Gainesville US 301 at Orange Heights SR 21 in Melrose | ||||
| East end |  SR 100 in Putnam Hall | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Florida | |||
| Counties | Gilchrist, Alachua, Putnam | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
State Road 26 (SR 26) is a 62.172-mile-long (100.056 km) east–west route across North Central Florida.
Route description
[edit]The western terminus of SR 26 is at US 19/98/27 Alternate (unsigned SR 55) in Fanning Springs, near the Gilchrist/Levy county line. However the beginning of its run is a short curve towards the north with a connecting County Road 55A leading to southbound US 19/98/Alt-27, and only begins to move it its signed cardinal direction in Wilcox east of the junction between three segments of the Nature Coast State Trail. Beginning in Wilcox, the route runs parallel to the trail, and continues to do so through Lottieville, where it carries County Road 341 in a short overlap. The route proceeds east through Trenton where it is named West Wade Street in the vicinity of the Trenton Elementary School, which is also where the trail beings to move away from the road. West Wade Street becomes East Wade Street at the intersection with US 129, then the route passes into Alachua County and Newberry as West Newberry Road, where it briefly runs through the city's historic district. After running through the historic district, it intersects with US 27-41 (unsigned SR 45), and continues to maintain the same street name even as it passes through the communities of Jonesville and Tioga before encountering the interchange with Interstate 75 just west of Gainesville.
East of the interstate, it runs straight east until the intersection with Northwest 57th Street where it curves to the southeast. SR 26 maintains the same street name until the road approaches State Road 26A, where West Newberry follows the same trajectory onto Southwest Second Avenue, while SR 26 moves onto University Avenue. East of President's Park, the route runs it runs along the northern edge of the University of Florida campus alongside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, followed by a merge with SR 24 at U.S. Route 441 (13th Street) and SR 20 at former SR 329 (Main Street), separating again near the eastern city limits. Skirting the western shores of Newnan's Lake as well as the state forest named for the lake,[2] it approaches the northern shores of the lake entering the Newnans Lake Conservation Area,[3] where it makes a sharp right turn at the eastern terminus of SR 222. Leaving the preserve area and passing through farmland, the road later crosses US 301 in Orange Heights, although a realignment of SR 26 south of the existing intersection was built by the Florida Department of Transportation between 2010 and 2011 which includes an interchange.[4][5] The next town along the route is Melrose, where the road enters the community's historic district, crosses the Alachua-Putnam County line and intersects SR 21, before it curves to the northeast and ends at SR 100 in Putnam Hall.
Major intersections
[edit]| County | Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gilchrist | Fanning Springs | 0.000 | 0.000 |  US 19 north / US 27 Alt. north / US 98 north (SR 55) – Cross City | |
| 0.303 | 0.488 |   To (CR 55A south) south / US 19 south / US 27 Alt. south / US 98 – Chiefland, St. Petersburg | |||
| Wilcox | 1.394 | 2.243 |   CR 232 north – Otter Springs, Hart Springs | ||
| | 2.453 | 3.948 |  CR 341 north – Hart Springs | western terminus of CR 341 overlap | |
| Lottieville | 2.963 | 4.768 |  CR 334A north | ||
| | 3.960 | 6.373 |  CR 313 north | ||
| | 4.472 | 7.197 |   CR 341 south – Airport | eastern terminus of CR 341 overlap | |
| | 5.470 | 8.803 |  CR 307 north | ||
| Trenton | 7.789 | 12.535 | US 129 (Main Street / SR 49) – Bell, Chiefland, Live Oak | ||
| 8.499 | 13.678 |  CR 319 south (Southeast 11th Street) | |||
| | 13.377 | 21.528 |  CR 337 south | ||
| | 16.698 | 26.873 | CR 337 north | ||
| Alachua | Newberry | 19.807 | 31.876 | CR 337 south (Southwest 266th Street) | |
| 20.802 | 33.478 |