Florida State Road 717 Explained

State:FL
Type:SR
Route:717
Alternate Name:Canal Street
Map Custom:yes
Maint:FDOT
Length Mi:1.714
Length Round:3
Direction A:South
Terminus A: in Belle Glade
Direction B:North
Terminus B: in Belle Glade
Counties:Palm Beach
Previous Type:SR
Previous Route:716
Next Type:SR
Next Route:727

State Road 717 (SR 717) is a 1.7adj=midNaNadj=mid northwest-southeast road in Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida, also known as Canal Street.

Route description

Paralleling the Hillsboro Canal its entire length, SR 717 extends from SR 880 and County Road 880 (CR 880) on the eastern edge of the city to the intersection of SR 715 on the western edge of the city. From its northern terminus at SR 715 to the intersection with North Main Street (SR 15-80), SR 717 follows the northern edge of the canal; between SR 15-80 and SR 880-CR 880 it follows the southern edge.

Continuing along East Canal Street past the southern terminus of SR 717, a motorist travels eastward on CR 880, itself a former part of SR 880 - which in turn follows the original configuration of U.S. Route 441 (US 441) and SR 80 between Belle Glade and Twenty Mile Bend.

Some commercially prepared maps erroneously show a "State Road 717" extending eastward from Pahokee on Muck City Road, but this is, in fact, County Road 717 serving the farmlands surrounding Pelican Lake. County Road 717 is often used as a short cut from Pahokee to eastbound US 98/SR 700 to West Palm Beach.

History

The current configuration of the State Road is approximately one-third as long as its original route, which extended northward to the Belle Glade Municipal Golf Course at the edge of the Okeechobee Waterway (a canal ringing Lake Okeechobee), then past the Okeechobee Waterway to Kreamer Island (this "extension" has since been orphaned by Florida Department of Transportation).