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Sebring Middle School Braces For Road Detours

Eucalyptus Street To Close Temporarily For Parkway Work

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: December 19, 2007

SEBRING – Eucalyptus Street, which is being converted into the next leg of Sebring Parkway, will be closed for most of the first half of 2008.

Jan. 2 is the date that this main road through Sebring, and the main access to Sebring Middle School, will be shut down.

Construction crews turning this city street into the next section of the parkway will keep the road closed between Center and Grapefruit streets for at least four and possibly up to six months.

That's the estimate provided by Highlands County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete.

"I think the time it's closed will be closer to the four months," Gavarrete said after announcing this major road closure at Tuesday's meeting of the Highlands County commissioners.

"But," Gavarrete added, "we're saying four to six months."

The biggest impact the road closing will have is on the parents and students of Sebring Middle School, which is smack in the middle of the closed-road area.

In a letter to the parents of all students at the school, Sebring Middle School Principal Sandi Whidden said parents can take the county's "official detour route," or another possible route around the construction.

The suggested or "official" detour route is: Heading in toward the school on Eucalyptus, turn left onto Grapefruit, then turn right onto Pear and go to Railroad Street and turn right; from there it's straight to Center Street and to the school.

Whidden also described what she called "another possible route" for cars traveling on the parkway toward the middle school:

That alternate route is: Turn right on Ridgewood Drive and take it to Pine; turn left on Pine and drive to Center Street, where you turn right and get into the school lot.

Gavarrete and Carl Cool, the former county engineer and now the county administrator, predict that Phase II of the Sebring Parkway will further reduce traffic on U.S. 27.

The third phase of the parkway projected, which hasn't been designed yet, will complete the planned high-speed, limited-access highway designed to take traffic off U.S. 27. The parkway is designed to wind around the city of Sebring, relieving U.S. 27 congestion from the north to the south ends of the city.

"We at Sebring Middle School are eagerly anticipating the positive impact that the parkway will bring to our area," Whidden said in her letter to parents.

Construction of Phase II of the Parkway along Eucalyptus began in late summer with right-of-way work, but the Jan. 2 closing will kick off the first phase of major road building and widening.

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