page_title: Florida State Road 826
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Florida State Road 826 / History
caption_attribution_description: Digital photo taken by Marc Averette. View of the en:Palmetto Expressway in Greater en:Miami, Florida southbound near NW 36th St
context_page_description: State Road 826 is a bypass route around the greater Miami area, traveling approximately 30 miles in a northeasterly arc from U.S. Route 1 in Pinecrest to its terminus at State Road A1A in Sunny Isles Beach. Between its southern terminus and the Golden Glades Interchange, State Road 826 is known as the Palmetto Expressway, a heavily traveled freeway with portions of the road carrying in excess of 250,000 vehicles a day. Unlike many of the other non-interstate freeways in Miami-Dade County, the Palmetto Expressway is untolled. East of the interchange, State Road 826 is a surface road connecting North Miami and North Miami Beach to Sunny Isles Beach over the Intracoastal Waterway.
context_section_description: State Road 826's designation originally applied to a two-lane road (Golden Glades Drive, Northwest 167th Street) connecting US 27 to US 441 in the vicinity of the Golden Glades Interchange.
  In 1956, plans were unveiled for several expressways throughout Dade County. The routes proposed were a North-South Expressway (now part of I-95), an East-West Expressway (now the Dolphin Expressway), a 36th Street Expressway (now the Airport Expressway), the Biscayne Bay Malecon (a proposed downtown loop, never built), a Dixie Expressway (proposed; most was never built, a portion became I-95), and the Palmetto Road Expressway. In 1957, Dade County Commissioner Ralph Fossey proposed an alternative alignment of the Palmetto Expressway. The new alignment would begin at Miller Road (Southwest 56th Street) and then turn southwesterly to follow the Seaboard Coast Line railroad tracks for about 10 miles (16 km). The route would then turn south at Southwest 117th Avenue and follow it into US 1. While the alternate route plan ultimately failed, eventually the Don Shula Expressway, a northeast-southwest expressway, was built along the railroad tracks in the 1970s.
  In 1958, the State Road Department started construction on the bypass expressway under their authority. A north–south section along West 77th Avenue (Palmetto Road) was built to connect US 1 in Pinecrest to an improved Golden Glades Drive (complete with 90 degree eastward turn) and the portion of Northwest 167th Street west of the curve would be abandoned. Many land owners were forced to sell their property to the county to make way for the construction of the expressway. The Palmetto Bypass Expressway was opened in June 1961 at the cost of $30 million, four years after the opening of Florida's Turnpike and six months before the opening of Dade County's second expressway, the Airport Expressway (SR 112).
  The completion of the Palmetto Expressway (the "Bypass" faded from public usage in the 1960s) and the building of Interstate 95 were the impetus of the construction of the massive Golden Glades Interchange involving Florida's Turnpike, US 441, Interstate 95, and SR 9.
  When the Palmetto Expressway was first opened, it went through tracts of woodland and farmland which have since been urbanized. Originally there were four at-grade intersections in Hialeah and Miami Lakes which were either transformed into full interchanges or blocked off in the 1970s. In addition, increasing traffic loads on the Palmetto prompted plans for extending Florida's Turnpike to "bypass the bypass." In 1974, the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike was opened to traffic four miles (6.4 km) to the west of the Palmetto to reduce the traffic demands on Miami's original bypass.
  The Florida Department of Transportation recently completed a project on a 16.7-mile-long (26.9 km) section of the Palmetto Expressway from the southern terminus to just north of the Northwest 154th Street interchange, widening the highway by two lanes (from eight lanes to ten and ten lanes to twelve) and improving the interchanges. Reconstruction of the Miller Drive, Bird Road and Don Shula Expressway interchanges began in 2008, and was completed around 2012. The Dolphin-Palmetto Interchange construction began on November 30, 2009, and was completed in late 2016.
  The Florida Department of Transportation is in the process of adding express lanes on the Palmetto Expressway between West Flagler Street and Northwest 154th Street, which will connect with new express lanes on Interstate 75. This will result in four regular and two express lanes, similar to 95 express.
caption: The Palmetto Expressway southbound at the SR 948 interchange near Doral
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