Florida State Road 82
State Road 82 is a 29-mile-long east-west highway serving northern Lee and Collier County, Florida. The western terminus is an intersection with Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers; the eastern terminus is an intersection with SR 29 midway between Immokalee and Felda.
Route description
State Road 82 begins in Downtown Fort Myers at US 41. Motorists continuing past the western terminus of SR 82 travel along McGregor Boulevard. Other State Roads within a few blocks of the western terminus include SR 80 and SR 739-Business US 41 to the east.Between Business US 41 and Interstate 75, SR 82 is a divided residential/commuter road. Within the city of Fort Myers, it is known as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
After intersecting Interstate 75, it continues east and passes close to Lehigh Acres. SR 82 intersects Daniels Parkway and Gunnery Road at a continuous-flow intersection near Lehigh Acres. As it continues east, it crosses the southwest Florida farmlands and wetlands, a part of Big Cypress Swamp and the western edge of the Everglades drainage system. After clipping the southwest corner of Hendry County, SR 82 enters Collier County and it briefly loses its median and becomes a two-lane agricultural road but expands back to a four-lane divided road about four miles later. SR 82 then comes to an end at a roundabout with SR 29 just north of Immokalee.
History
SR 82 was originally named Anderson Avenue within Fort Myers and it was an early city street. Anderson Avenue was named for Dr. Richard Anderson, who is believed to be the first physician to set up a practice and drug store in Fort Myers. The street was named for Dr. Anderson in 1885, one year after his death.In the early 1900s, Anderson Avenue was extended east from Fort Myers to Buckingham. The road ran from Fort Myers east to present-day Buckingham Road, which was built at the same time, creating a direct route from Fort Myers to Buckingham.
The road was built as a dirt road from present-day Buckingham Road to Immokalee in the 1930s. The road was officially added to the state highway system in 1931 as SR 184. It was paved in the 1940s. The extension to Immokalee was often referred to as Immokalee Road for many years, though that name has been phased out and is now used on the nearby List of [county roads in Collier County, Florida#County Road 846|CR 846], which runs from Immokalee to Naples.
During the 1945 [Florida State Road renumbering], SR 184 was changed to SR 82. Until the 1980s, SR 82 was an "interrupted" state road, for there was concurrently a Fort Lauderdale street with SR 82 signage. In the 1980s, Davie Boulevard's SR 82 signage was replaced with signs showing its current designation, SR 736.
In 1991, SR 82 west of I-75 in Fort Myers was renamed from Anderson Avenue to its current name, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The road was rededicated with its new name on January 15, 1991, which is Martin [Luther King Jr.|Dr. King]'s birthday.
Much of SR 82 east of Interstate 75 was upgraded and widened to a multi-lane divided highway in the 2010s and early 2020s. The continuous-flow intersection at the Daniels Parkway/Gunnery Road intersection was the first CFI built in Florida, which became fully operational on July 9, 2019.