Golden Glades Interchange
| Golden Glades Interchange | |
|---|---|
 The Golden Glades Interchange | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Miami Gardens–North Miami Beach,Florida | |
| Coordinates | 25°55′40″N80°12′30″W/ 25.92765°N 80.208203°W |
| Roads at junction |  I-95(SR 9A) Florida's Turnpike(SR 91)  US 441/SR 7 SR 9 SR 826(Palmetto Expressway) |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1953[1] |
| Maintained by | FDOT |
TheGolden Glades Interchange,located inMiami GardensandNorth Miami Beach,Florida, United States, is the confluence of six major roads serving eastern and southern Florida. It is named after the original name of North 167th Street, Golden Glades Road.
Description
[edit]
The six highways that come together at the interchange areU.S. Route 441(US 441),Florida's Turnpike,thePalmetto Expressway(signed State Road 826),SR 9,North Miami Beach Boulevard (NW 167th Street) andInterstate 95(I-95). US 441 bearsSR 7as a hidden designation, and the turnpike is similarly SR 91. SR 9 is the hidden designation for I-95 north of the interchange but branches southward off I-95 to become a major commercial road on its own accord. South of the interchange, I-95 bearsSR 9Aas its hidden designation.
History
[edit]The Golden Glades interchange initially opened as an intersection between US 441 and SR 826 in 1953, expanding into its current form in the next decade. Its construction was prompted by a sequence of events spanning 12 years. In 1950, US 441 was extended from downtownOrlandotoMiamito connect with a stretch ofUS 41which sportedUS 94road signs just a year earlier. In 1957, Florida's Turnpike (then called the Sunshine State Parkway) was completed in Dade (laterMiami-Dade) County, joining SR 826 (which, at the time was Golden Glades Drive, an east–west street connectingUS 1alongBiscayne BaytoUS 27inland). In 1958, construction of the north–south section of the Palmetto Bypass Expressway started, using SR 826 with a 90-degree eastward curve (the western section of SR 826 was to be abandoned). In 1959, construction of a segment of I-95, from Northwest 20th Street in Miami toSR 84inFort Lauderdalewas started, along withI-195and theAirport Expressway(SR 112) for access toMiami BeachandMiami International Airport.In 1961, construction of the Palmetto Bypass Expressway (the name was unofficially shortened in the mid-1960s), the Airport Expressway (then called the 36th Street Tollway), and the segment of I-95 south of Northwest 95th Street in Dade County were completed.
Anticipating increasing traffic to and from Dade County, FDOT broke ground on May 18, 1962, for the new Golden Glades Interchange. The section of I-95 from Golden Glades to SR 84 was completed in 1963;[citation needed]the Golden Glades Interchange and I-95 south to Northwest 95th Street opened on June 9, 1964.[1]
The interchange was also known as theInteramaInterchange until it was renamed the Golden Glades Interchange in 1977.[2]
Flyoversto acommuter trainstation andbus terminal(in the 1970s) and elevatedHOVlanes (in 1995) have been added to it to accommodate the growing regional population, which has more than doubled since the interchange's opening. There were plans in the 1980s to reconstruct the interchange, but they were dropped due to high construction costs.[3]The Golden Glades has been expanded and worked on several times over the years and is seen as a bottleneck in traffic on all the roads it incorporates.
In 2017, the Florida Department of Transportation plans to widen the turnpike connector to I-95 to five lanes, including two lanes from the turnpike and three lanes from the eastbound Palmetto Expressway. Three lanes will exit to a relocated off-ramp to State Road 7 while the other three lanes will continue to I-95, which will get another lane between the Golden Glades and Northwest 151st Street. The entrance to the southbound express lanes south of the Golden Glades also will be moved 300 feet further south. In addition, the eastbound Palmetto ramp to I-95 will be widened to three lanes – two to southbound I-95 and one on a new direct ramp to northbound I-95.[4][5][6]
See also
[edit]- Transportation in South Florida
- Dolphin–Palmetto Interchange
- Midtown Interchange
- Rainbow Interchange
References
[edit]- ^abOswald, Jack (June 9, 1964)."All Links Open: Golden Glades Traffic Flows".The Miami News.p. B1.RetrievedAugust 3,2011.
- ^Staff (April 15, 1977).Journal of the Senate(PDF).Tallahassee, FL: Florida State Senate. p. 155.
- ^Turnbell, Michael (March 1, 2009)."Palmetto Expressway to I-95 Link Too Costly".South Florida Sun Sentinel.
- ^"Golden Glades Interchange needs a makeover".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-12-06.Retrieved2011-11-23.
- ^"Golden Glades interchange to get a makeover".tribunedigital-sunsentinel.Retrieved2017-01-06.
- ^"Traffic reports: Find Miami road construction, crashes and traffic news".tribunedigital-sunsentinel.Retrieved2017-01-06.