Florida State Road 407 Explained

State:FL
Type:SR
Route:407
Alternate Name:Challenger Memorial Parkway
Maint:FDOT
Map Custom:yes
Length Mi:6.800
Direction A:South
Terminus A: near Titusville
Junction: in Titusville
Direction B:North
Terminus B: in Titusville
Counties:Brevard
Previous Type:SR
Previous Route:406
Next Type:Toll
Next Route:408

State Road 407 (SR 407), known locally as Challenger Memorial Parkway, is a 6.8miles spur from SR 528 (Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway) that links to SR 405. By utilizing the SR 407 to SR 405 route, travelers from Central Florida can access the Kennedy Space Center and the city of Titusville.

Some road maps (for example, AAA) show SR 407 between SR 528 and Interstate 95 (I-95) to be a toll road. While no tolls are collected on SR 407 and it is not signed as a toll road, it is impossible to drive on this section without also connecting to or from State Road 528 and paying a toll.

Route description

State Road 407 was built as a two-lane freeway, meaning that although the highway is expressway-standard, it is merely two lanes with only a dotted or solid yellow line in the middle separating northbound and southbound traffic.

Within the SR 528/SR 407/I-95 triangle is a swampland containing the southern unit of St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge, a popular resting area for migrating birds (the northern unit is two miles (3 km) to the north, adjacent to I-95 and SR 50), and just to the west of the triangle is Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area, which extends from SR 50 southward to just south of SR 520 in nearby Orange County.

History

The street is named after Space Shuttle Challenger which disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in 1986.

The northern half of the road lost its two-lane freeway qualities when an at-grade intersection was built just south of SR 405, providing a southern exit to Florida's Spaceport Industrial Park and Space Coast Regional Airport.