Floresta Drive Improvement Project, Port St. Lucie

The Floresta Drive Improvement Project rebuilds Floresta Drive in Port St. Lucie as an enhanced two-lane road with landscaping, lighting, sidewalks and bicycle lanes from Southbend Boulevard to Prima Vista Boulevard.

The City of Port St. Lucie project page says the finished corridor will run more than four miles, and the Public Works Half-Cent Sales Tax Projects page describes the same plan as 4.1 miles of two-lane roadway improvements with four signalized intersections and six roundabouts. That page names the corridor's constraints in plain terms: a narrow 80-foot right-of-way, many residential driveways, a small mix of commercial businesses and an elementary school along the route. The city's solution is a Complete Street concept, with enhanced sidewalks and bike lanes, street and pedestrian lighting, and street trees where space allows.

The phase limits and dates in the table come from the Floresta Drive Improvement Project page, which calls phase 3 the third and final phase. The corridor goals listed there include accommodating projected traffic volumes while minimizing impacts to adjacent properties, preserving the residential nature of Floresta Drive, strengthening pedestrian and bicycle connections to the school, and meeting Goal 5 of the Port St. Lucie strategic plan, High Quality Infrastructure and Facilities.

By the city's own records, the first two Floresta Drive phases were built between 2020 and early 2025, and the third phase, Crosstown Parkway to Prima Vista Boulevard, began in March 2025.

Phase 1 ran from Southbend Boulevard to the Elkcam Waterway, began construction in 2020 and was completed in 2022, according to the city's February 20, 2025 release on the project's milestones. The same release said phase 2, from the Elkcam Waterway to Crosstown Parkway, began in 2022 and was nearly finalized as of February 2025. The city's March 6, 2025 open house notice described phase 2 as substantially complete.

The Public Works Half-Cent Sales Tax Projects page keeps a status legend for each funded segment. On that page the Southbend to Elkcam and Elkcam to Crosstown segments carry the completed mark, and the Crosstown to Prima Vista segment carries the in progress mark. For the current phase 3 schedule, the city posts its projected completion on the Floresta Drive project page, which is the record to check before planning around the work, along with the email sign-up for project updates listed there.

Floresta Drive is funded by the half-cent sales tax that St. Lucie County voters approved in November 2018, with utility line relocation carried in the Port St. Lucie water and sewer budget.

The city's project page says the November 2018 Half-Cent Sales Tax referendum provided funding for the Floresta Drive improvements. On the Half-Cent Sales Tax Projects page, Floresta Drive Improvements is listed at $100 million, with segment lines of $14,666,857 for Southbend to Elkcam, $31 million for Elkcam to Crosstown and $61 million for Crosstown to Prima Vista.

The FY 2023-24 adopted budget book names Floresta Phases 2 and 3 among that year's capital projects and lists Floresta Improvements at $28 million within a five-year capital program projected at $328.6 million (FY 2023-24 Adopted Budget Book). The same Port St. Lucie budget says the Water and Sewer Fund supports street upgrades for Floresta Drive from Crosstown to Prima Vista through the relocation of the water and wastewater lines, at a cost of $3 million. A 2021 utility bond described in the budget also covered relocation of water utility lines in connection with the Floresta Drive roadway improvements.

The Port St. Lucie City Council chose a two-lane plan for Floresta Drive in 2017 and adopted the final corridor master plan on May 14, 2018, before construction started in September 2020.

According to the history on the Floresta Drive project page, the council directed staff at its 2017 Summer Retreat to model the corridor as both a 2-lane and a 4-lane road, including the Crosstown Parkway Extension Project's connection to U.S. Highway 1, with traffic volumes projected for 2037. On October 30, 2017, the council unanimously approved the 2-Lane Conceptual Improvement Roadway Plan. Public Information Workshops in January and March 2018 led to revisions, and the final layout and amenities of the Floresta Drive Corridor Master Plan were approved unanimously on May 14, 2018.

The city held a Construction Open House at the Port St. Lucie Community Center on September 2, 2020, and the phase 1 groundbreaking followed on September 14, 2020 (project history). The project page also keeps the meeting documents from that period, including the master plan presentations to City Council and a summary of comments from the January 24, 2018 public meeting.

Phase 3 work closed sections of Floresta Drive in Port St. Lucie in both directions, with detours posted on Crosstown Parkway and Prima Vista Boulevard.

A city notice published September 15, 2025 said the Floresta Drive closure would be extended to the stretch between SE Calmoso Drive and SE Evergreen Terrace beginning that day, and listed the closure period as Sept. 15, 2025 through September 2026. Northbound and southbound lanes were closed to install drainage structures and pipes and to build the road, sidewalk and curb. Detour signs were placed on Crosstown Parkway and Prima Vista Boulevard to route drivers around the work.

Transit riders were affected too. The news list on the Floresta Drive project page carries a March 12, 2026 item saying St. Lucie County's Area Regional Transit (ART) temporarily moved the route 6 bus stops at SE Floresta Drive and SE Cavern Avenue and at SE Floresta Drive and SE Verada Avenue, effective Monday, March 23, due to road construction being performed by the City of Port St. Lucie. For closures in effect on a given day, the project page's news list and the email updates are the city's own channels.

The Port St. Lucie project page, its email updates and the city's 1PSL line at 772-871-1775 are the standing channels, and the city held construction open houses in 2020 and 2025.

For phase 3, the city hosted an open house on Monday, March 10, 2025, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Port St. Lucie city Community Center, 2195 SE Airoso Blvd., with a presentation at 5:30 p.m., where public works staff and the construction team answered questions (open house notice). The project page keeps the presentation from that meeting and renderings of segments 3A and 3B, along with drone aerials of the corridor dated December 17, 2024, and lists a Community Outreach contact at 772-871-5176.

On February 19, 2025, representatives of the city and community partners gathered at U.S. Submarine Veterans Park, at the corner of Floresta Drive and Crosstown Parkway, to mark the work completed to that point and the start of the final phase (city release). General questions or concerns about Port St. Lucie roads go to 1PSL at 772-871-1775, the city's request and concern line. Last verified: October 22, 2026, using the Floresta Drive project page and its phase history, three city news releases from 2025, the Half-Cent Sales Tax project list and the FY 2023-24 budget book.