FL 112/FL 948/FL 953, Dade County, FL


Scale is approximately 1 km per UTM grid square.

FL 112 comes in from the northeast and goes out to the southwest. Both FL 948 and FL 953 are local streets, FL 948 runs to the west and FL 953 goes north-south. US 27 also comes in on the street from the northwest and continues eastward in line with FL 948. FL 112 enters the terminal area at MIA just off the left of the map.

FL 112 is one of the most unusual urban freeways I have found anywhere. After coming in from the east (it is the westward extension of I-195) as a tollway, it turns south at the US 27/FL 948/FL 953 intersection area and about 1.2 km later turns sharply westward and enters the Miami International Airport terminals.

That in itself is not all that unusual EXCEPT that from just east of the intersection to the airport entrance area (a total distance of almost 2 km), the carriageways of FL 112 are reversed. Coming out of the airport, FL 112 traffic takes a looping ramp that crosses FL 953 twice. There is an off-ramp to NB FL 953 there. Traffic then crosses over airportbound FL 112 traffic and rides next to it (seperated by a 'Jersey' barrier) until about the US 27/FL 948/FL 953 intersection, where it splits away and re-crosses back to the proper side (there are ramp connections to this intersection here). Airportbound traffic follows a slightly less convoluted routing. There is a 'slip' ramp between SB FL 953 and airportbound FL 112 just south of the railroad.

Even MORE unusual, the railroad crosses both FL 953 AND FL 112 *at grade*, one of the small handfull of at grade freeway railroad crossings left in the USA, and THIS one crosses the 'reversed' section of FL 112. It is unlikely, barring abondonment of the railroad, that this crossing will be removed anytime soon as there is no place to relocate FL 112. A bridge is out of the question because the crossing is right off the end of one of the airport's main runways.

Might FL 112 someday be added to the routing of I-195? Unlikely in the forseeable future, as the railroad crossing would need an FHWA 'exemption' and I have heard of no move to request the designation from FlaDOT.

An interesting 'Welcome to Miami' indeed!

:-)



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