Florida State Road 33 Explained

State Road 33 (SR 33) is a state highway running through Lake and Polk counties in the U.S. state of Florida.

Route description

State Road 33 begins in Lakeland off U.S. Route 92 (US 92) east of the intersection with US 98 and heads north along the vicinity of the west bank of Lake Parker. North of there it curves to the northeast and has one of two interchanges with Interstate 4 (I-4). The first interchange (Exit 33) provides westbound access via North Socrum Loop Road (CR 582), and eastbound access directly to SR 33. The route turns more to the east away from I-4, until it curves north at the northern terminus of Florida State Road 659. It has an encounter at the second interchange with I-4 (Exit 38) where it actually crosses under the interstate. The road continues northeast to Polk City where it curves back towards the north at a bridge over a former Seaboard Air Line Railroad line (now the Auburndale TECO Trail and General James A. Van Fleet State Trail) just at the northwestern coast of Lake Agnes. From there, it traverses through mostly rural farmland into Lake County and Groveland. In Groveland, it intersects and begins a 3miles concurrency with SR 50, up to Mascotte. Now a county road, CR 33 continues through another 10miles or so of rural farmland, passes over Florida's Turnpike, then has a brief overlap with Lake County Road 48 in Okahumpka, which terminates at the eastern terminus of CR 470, while CR 48 head to Howey-in-the-Hills. Lake CR 33 itself ends on US 27 just south of the bridge over Helena Run, a waterway between Lake Denham and Lake Harris.

Related routes

SR-CR 33A

State Road 33A served as a suffixed alternate route for SR 33 from Eaton Park, Florida to the northern reaches of Lakeland, Florida. It began at US 98 in Eaton Park, ran north through Crystal Lake and Combee Settlement at US 92, and finally terminated at SR 33 south of Interstate 4. It is mainly known as South Combee Road south of Polk County Road 542 and North Combee Road north of CR 542. At some point in the 1980's, the route was downgraded into County Road 33A. Today it is designated as Florida State Road 659, though the old route number still shows up in many street name signs and on Google maps.