U.S. Route 129 in Florida

U.S. Highway 129 Alternate
U.S. Highway 129 Alternate
Location	Old Town-Branford
Existed	1959–1970

Statenville, GA
Statenville, GA
Location
Country	United States
State	Florida
Counties	Levy, Gilchrist, Suwannee, Hamilton
Highway system
	United States Numbered Highway System; List; Special; Divided; Florida State Highway System; Interstate; US; State Former; Pre‑1945; ; Toll; Scenic;

U.S. Route 129 (US 129) in

United States Highway. It runs 88 miles (142 km) from Chiefland north to the Georgia State Line in Levy, Gilchrist, Suwannee, and Hamilton Counties

.

The secret designation for US 129 in Florida, between Chiefland and Hildreth is

SR 6

in Jasper.

Route description

Levy and Gilchrist Counties

US 129 begins just northwest of the southeastern terminus of the

27 ALT concurrency in Chiefland. The road is concurrent with hidden SR 49

, running northeast until it reaches Northwest 30th Avenue and turns straight north where it remains through the rest of Levy County.

A few blocks after crossing the Levy-

former Atlantic Coast Line Depot

serves as the trailhead of the Trenton-Newberry Rail Trail.

At a fork in the road, SR 47 branches off to the northeast toward Lake City, while US 129 turns to the northwest. North of the Trenton city limits, US 129 passes by the Trenton Fire Tower near Joppa Lake. After the intersection with

CR 307, just south of the Sam Whet Farms Airport

.

In

CR 138, but the last intersection in general is Northwest 117th Place, which is just south of the bridge over the Santa Fe River, where it enters Suwannee County

.

Suwannee County, including Branford and Live Oak

From the Santa Fe River Bridge, the first intersection is 296th Street, and all subsequent intersections are equally minor until it reaches

CR 252

, Between the end of this concurrency and 144th Street, it curves straight north again.

Within the historic

CR 10A(Helvenston Street Southeast). Further downtown it becomes the location for the Old Live Oak Post Office, and later, the Suwannee County Courthouse. The official end of the US 129/SR 51/SR 136/SR 249 concurrency is at US 90(hidden SR 10

), where SR 249 joins westbound US 90 for four blocks until it reaches Houston Avenue. As with Trenton, the intersection serves as the city's four corners, because US 129's name changes from South Ohio Avenue to North Ohio Avenue, and US 90's name changes from West Howard Street to East Howard Street.

One block later, it crosses the railroad tracks where the historic

CR 132, and secretly takes it north. Just before crossing over the Suwannee River bridge and entering Hamilton County, not only does a former segment of the road veer off to the right and lead to an abandoned 1931-built bridge,^[4] but a pair of truck weigh stations can be found on both sides of the road. US 129 winds to the left of the old bridge and then curves right over the river as it enters Hamilton County

.

Hamilton County to the Georgia State Line

Unlike in Suwannee County, only a hint of the right-of-way of the former segment of US 129 can be found before the road turns straight north before letting go of its overlap with

CR 158. US 129 then approaches a Love's truck stop and a pair of quarter-cloverleaf ramps on the southeast and northwest corners above its interchange with I-75 at exit 451. Beyond I-75, it passes through Hillcoat, which is the site of Hamilton County High School and later where US 129 joins US 41/hidden SRs 25 and 100. The newly concurrent routes briefly run straight north before making a reverse curve around the left side of Roberts Pond and Shaky Pond before entering Jasper. US 41-129-SR 100 turns west onto SR 6

(Hatley Street), which becomes CR 6 east of the intersection, while hidden SR 51 becomes CR 51 (Second Avenue Northeast) north of the same intersection.

After Fifth Avenue, the road begins to curve to the northwest, and by 15th Avenue, the concurrency with US 41 and SRs 6 and 25 ends as those routes move to the west while US 129 curves off to the northwest, taking SR 100 away from US 41. Resuming its northward agenda, which US 41 will do further on, US 129/SR 100 runs through the forests of northern Florida interrupted by the occasional private house and farmland. The only real intersection of any significance it encounters is CR 148 in Rawls, where it also crosses the same Georgia Southern and Florida Railway line that followed US 41 from Lake City. North of there, farm fields become a more common site.

Whatever farmland exists disappears near the intersection of a dirt road named Northwest 25th Drive, and the rest of the journey becomes pure forest land with occasional local dirt road intersections. This trend continues until one clearings near Northwest 13th Street. One more paved road intersects with US 129 in the form of CR 150 near Avoca, and just north of there the road crosses a bridge over Alligator Creek, and one last named intersection with Northwest 86th Avenue. After passing by one last farm field, the surroundings become quite wooded and picturesque. Two last unnamed dirt roads intersect US 129 before the road prepares to curve straight north one last time and upon completing the turn finally crosses the Florida–Georgia State line where SR 100 comes to an end, and Georgia State Route 11 begins. The border is defined by an intersection with an unnamed dirt road on the east side.

History

Always a spur of US 29, which begins much further west in Pensacola, US 129 entered Florida in 1941 in Jasper. By 1948, it went further south along US 41 to Hillcoat, where it branched off toward Live Oak and Branford, where it turned right along a brief wrong-way concurrency with US 27 over the Suwannee River and then turned south towards its former terminus at Old Town. Eleven years later, the segment south of Branford would be rerouted in the proper direction along US 27 and make a right turn along SR 49 toward Trenton and Chiefland, while the old US 129 would become US 129 Alternate (see below).

The 1931-built Suwannee Springs Bridge was abandoned in 1971, and replaced with the current bridge when US 129 was realigned.^[5]

Until US 27 Alternate was widened and the intersection with US 19-98 was redesigned in the early 21st century, US 129 also intersected with the south end of the US 19-98-27 ALT concurrency, as well as the west end of SR 500.

Major intersections

County	Location	mi^[1]	km	Destinations	Notes
US 27 Alt. / US 98 – Inglis, Cedar Key, St. Petersburg, Fanning Springs
		0.290	0.467	CR 321 north (Northwest 50th Avenue)
		2.081	3.349	CR 320 (Northwest 120th Street)
		2.789	4.488	CR 345 south (Northwest 30th Avenue)
		3.315	5.335	CR 345 east (Northwest 130th Street)
		4.320	6.952	CR 346 west (Northwest 140th Street)
		5.344	8.600	CR 346 east (Northwest 150th Street)
		6.326	10.181	CR 346A (Northwest 160th Street)
CR 339 south (Bronson Highway) – Bronson
	9.931	15.982	SR 26 (Wade Street) – Fanning Springs, Newberry, Gainesville, Lancaster Correctional Institution
	10.272	16.531	SR 47 north – Fort White
		14.003	22.536	CR 344 west – Hart Springs
		14.918	24.008	CR 307 south
		16.130	25.959	CR 232 west – Hart Springs Recreation Park
		18.127	29.173	CR 232 east
	CR 341 south (Strickland Avenue)
	CR 341 south (Strickland Avenue)	21.262	34.218	CR 236 west
		23.262	37.437	CR 340
		29.848	48.036	CR 138 east
Santa Fe River				Bridge over the Santa Fe River
SR 49 overlap; south end of US 27 / SR 20 overlap
	SR 249 overlap
	SR 249 overlap	38.395	61.791	SR 247 north (West Plant Avenue) – Lake City
		41.224	66.344	CR 248 – Little River Springs
	CR 349 north – Royal Springs
	CR 252 east – Lake City	south end of CR 252 overlap
		54.177	87.189	CR 252 west	north end of CR 252 overlap
	SR 249 overlap; south end of SR 51 overlap
		62.788	101.047	Mobile
		62.924	101.266	Stephen Foster Folk Center, White Springs
		65.50	105.41	I-10 (SR 8) – Tallahassee, Jacksonville	I-10 exit 283
		67.320	108.341	CR 136A east
		69.567	111.957	Boys Ranch, Wellborn
Suwannee River				Bridge over the Suwannee River
CR 132 east
		73.421	118.160	CR 158 west
		74.15	119.33	Atlanta	I-75 exit 451
		76.954	123.845	SR 100) – White Springs	south end of US 41 / SR 25 / SR 100 overlap
	SR 6 overlap
		79.361	127.719	Northeast First Avenue ( CR 51 north)
		79.475	127.903	Southwest First Avenue ( CR 249 south)
		80.290	129.214	Northwest 15th Avenue ( CR 152 south)
		80.355	129.319	SR 25 north) – Jennings	north end of US 41 / SR 6 / SR 25 overlap
		86.203	138.730	CR 150 west
		87.881	141.431	US 129 north / SR 11 north – Statenville, Lakeland	Georgia state line
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Concurrency terminus

Related routes

U.S. Route 129 Alternate (US 129 ALT) was a former segment of US 129 that ran from Old Town to Branford, almost entirely on the west side of the Suwannee River.

The road began at US 19-98-27 ALT in Old Town and ran north to US 27(SR 20) in Grady, where it turned east as both roads crossed the Suwannee River. US 129 ALT terminated at US 129, which joined US 27 until it reached Hildreth.

Today the segment between Old Town and Grady is SR 349, while the segment between Grady and Branford is simply US 27.

References

^ ^a ^b FDOT straight line diagrams, accessed January 2014
^ mapguy, End of U.S. Highway 129 Archived 2012-07-03 at the Wayback Machine (with maps of U.S. 129 and related routes). URL accessed 21:00, 25 March 2006 (UTC).
^ Suwannee River Greenway Trail
^ Suwannee Springs Bridge - Built 1931 by Ben Tate (Panoramio)
^ Suwannee Springs Bridge (Bridgehunter.com)
^ US Alternate 129 (Official Road Map of Florida -- 1967)

External links

KML file (edit • help)

Template:Attached KML/U.S. Route 129 in Florida

KML is from Wikidata

U.S. Route 129
Previous state: Terminus	Florida	Next state: Georgia

[sld-1] FDOT straight line diagrams, accessed January 2014

[mapguy-2] uy, End of U.S. Highway 129 Archived 2012-07-03 at the Wayback Machine (with maps of U.S. 129 and related routes). URL accessed 21:00, 25 March 2006 (UTC).

[3] Suwannee River Greenway Trail

[4] Suwannee Springs Bridge - Built 1931 by Ben Tate (Panoramio)

[5] Suwannee Springs Bridge (Bridgehunter.com)

[6] US Alternate 129 (Official Road Map of Florida -- 1967)

[4]

[5]

[1]

[6]