Miami-Dade Expressway Authority
Encyclopedia
The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is an independent agency created in December 1994 by the State of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

 and the Miami-Dade County
Miami-Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the state of Florida. As of 2010 U.S. Census, the county had a population of 2,496,435, making it the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States...

 Commission. Since 1997, MDX has been operating and maintaining five expressways that were formerly operated by the Florida Department of Transportation
Florida Department of Transportation
The Florida Department of Transportation is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of the Florida State Road Department...

: Gratigny Parkway (SR 924), Airport Expressway (SR 112), Dolphin Expressway (SR 836), Don Shula Expressway (SR 874) and Snapper Creek Expressway (SR 878). Three of the five expressways are all electronic
Open road tolling
Open road tolling or free-flow tolling is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow...

 toll roads, requiring the use of SunPass
SunPass
SunPass is an electronic toll collection system in use by the State of Florida and was originally created by the Florida Department of Transportation's Florida's Turnpike...

 or a "toll-by-plate" program and do not accept cash, and the free movement sections were removed. The Gratigny Parkway, Don Shula Expressway and Snapper Creek Expressway are all electronic, while the Airport Expressway and Dolphin Expressway will be converted by 2013.

All MDX highways use the shield-shaped signs reserved by FDOT for toll roads (with the MDX logo (see above) attached below the "shield"). Along a portion of a MDX route where no tolls are ahead, the TOLL in the green section of the TOLL shield is removed. In addition, all MDX highways use a uniquely-designed mileage marker. Instead of the green "MILE XX" markers most commonly seen on Interstate Highways, the five MDX expressways use blue mileage markers featuring (from top to bottom, in white): a single letter indicating the direction of travel, the State Road designation of the highway (complete with outline of the State of Florida), and two numbers separated by a horizontal line ("2" on the top, "4" on the bottom of the line represents Mile Marker 2.4 from either the southern or western end of the expressway). These markers are placed on the edge of the shoulder every 0.2 mile apart along the expressway (the Gratigny Expressway has two of these (Mile Markers 5.0 and 5.2) on a surface street near Opa-Locka
Opa-locka, Florida
Opa-locka is a city located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the mid decade census, the population was 15,376 as recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau....

 on Northwest 119th Street just east of the end of its easternmost ramp).

Completely funded by toll revenues, MDX has been aggressively upgrading and updating its roads over the past decade, including the ongoing Dolphin Expressway extension (the first phase was completed in 2007) and re-engineering of several interchanges of its two oldest expressways (the Airport and Dolphin). Long term plans include the redesign and reconstruction of longtime bottlenecks in the Shula and Dolphin Expressways, most notably the often-backed-up Killian Parkway/SR 990
Florida State Road 990
A long east–west road near Kendall, State Road 990 currently extends from an interchange between the Don Shula Expressway and West 107th Avenue to South Dixie Highway...

 interchange near Miami Dade College-Kendall Campus
Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College, or simply Miami Dade or MDC, is a state college with eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers located throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida in the United States. It is part of the Florida College System. Miami Dade College is the largest school in the Florida College...

 and the heavily congested interchange with the Palmetto Expressway (SR 826) near the extreme western end of Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...

.

Airport Expressway

State Road 112, locally known as Airport Expressway is a 4 mile long east-west expressway connecting Miami International Airport in Miami to I-95 and I-195, which ultimately connects to Miami Beach.

Dolphin Expressway

State Road 836, locally known as the Dolphin Expressway, is13.8 miles long toll road currently extending from Southwest 137th Avenue in the west to I-95 in the east. The section of roadway east of I-95 is designated as I-395 or the MacArthur Causeway.

Don Shula Expressway

State Road 874, locally known as the Don Shula Expressway, is 7 miles long, connecting the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike and Palmetto Expressway in central Miami-Dade County, Florida. As of July 17, 2010, the Don Shula Expressway no longer accepts cash.

Snapper Creek Expressway

State Road 878, locally known as the Snapper Creek Expressway, stretches for 3.0 miles between Don Shula Expressway (State Road 874) and U.S. Highway 1 (South Dixie Highway - SR 5). This provides access to Kendall and South Miami. Although constructed, improved and maintained through toll revenue, the Snapper Creek Expressway was untolled until July 17, 2010, when open road tolling (ORT) was initiated on the Expressway.

Gratigny Parkway

State Road 924, locally known as Gratigny Parkway, is a 5.2 mile long limited access all-electronic toll road maintained by the Miami-Dade Expressway, running east to west. The Gratigny Parkway starts east of the Palmetto Expressway/I-75 interchange in Hialeah and ends at Northwest 32nd Avenue in North Miami. The section of roadway east of NW 32nd Avenue is a surface street (Northwest 119th Street) also known as Gratigny Road. Despite its relatively short length, SR 924 is a major east-west artery in northern Miami-Dade County, Florida.

External links

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