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FDOT Presents Options for NW 36th Street

June 25, 2021

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The Florida Department of Transportation met at the Holiday Inn on South Royal Poinciana Boulevard to present residents a variety of proposed options for NW 36th Street. After some of the project presentations, the audience had an opportunity to give feedback via an unscientific smartphone poll.

ELEVATED ROADWAY

One of the proposals presented by FDOT was an elevated roadway between the railroad overpass on NW 36th Street that would extend west to the Palmetto Expressway. As you can see in the example below, it creates 2 elevated lanes, but then it also removes two regular ground level lanes. When asked by the crowd for examples of the on ramps / off ramps for these elevated lanes, the FDOT did not have concrete answers. Overwhelmingly, the crowd voted “NO BUILD”.

DEDICATED TRUCK / BUS LANES

One of the proposals presented by FDOT was to take away a regular lane in each direction to create a dedicated bus or truck lane. The examples below highlight the area of NW 36th Street between the FEC overpass and the Palmetto Expressway. Again, overwhelmingly the audience poll response was NO BUILD.

LEFT TURN REMOVAL

Another proposal that wasn’t opened up for an audience poll was the elimination of the eastbound left turn option at the intersection of NW 36th Street and NW 72nd Avenue. With the elimination of the 2 left turn lanes, the FDOT proposed a U-Turn that would go under the FEC Overpass (shown in yellow below). They also had an option of creating a U-Turn lane in front of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue intersection in the second option below.

VIRGINIA GARDENS SECTION OF 36th ST

Below you’ll find FDOT proposals for the Virginia Gardens section of NW 36th Street from NW 67th Avenue to NW 57th Avenue (Curtiss Parkway). They basically showed an option of using a dedicated lane on Perimiter Drive for Trucks Only, an option to take away an existing lane for Bus Use or Truck Use Only or an option of creating an additional lane just for trucks or buses. Again, the audience didn’t like the option of taking away an existing lane. As for the option of a dedicated truck lane or bus lane for a 10 block area, it doesn’t make sense when it will bottle neck back to three lanes at 57th Avenue or 67th Avenue.

When presented with just the following choices, the audience preferred the No Build option. However, that was when presented with these 4 choices.

Something the FDOT did not present, but was shared by the author with the FDOT committee was the option of changing the intersection at NW 36th Street and NW 66th Avenue. The proposal would convert the 2 right eastbound lanes on NW 36th Street from standard Red Yellow Green to a constant straight Green Arrow. In other words, traffic on the 2 right lanes will never stop. It also wouldn’t hurt the people making a left from 66th Avenue to NW 36th Street as it would still allow them to turn onto the far left lane. This will keep more cars flowing and prevent cars from idling unnecessarily. You can see in the graphic below where the 2 right lanes could easily be converted into straight go lanes all the time. FDOT would need to install a barrier between the far left lane and the middle lane, but in the scheme of things it’s a relatively low investment to keep traffic flowing.

MIAMI SPRINGS SECTION OF 36th STREET

Below you’ll find FDOT proposals for the Miami Springs section of NW 36th Street from NW NW 57th Avenue (Curtiss Parkway) to South Royal Poinciana Boulevard. The options included dedicated freight and bus lanes which were not popular. It also included an option that increased the sidewalk on the airport side, but basically did nothing on the westbound side. There was a new option presented that included widening 36th Street to 8 lanes, but those would included dedicated bus and/or truck lanes.

Again, those in attendance preferred Not Building compared to the options presented by the FDOT. However, the author as well as resident Rogelio Madan argued that it was important to increase the sidewalks along the westbound side (the side next to the hotels) to make it more pedestrian friendly for the tourists who stay along our hotels. No word if FDOT will use that feedback to adjust their proposals.

IRON TRIANGLE

The Florida Department of Transportation also proposed adding a flyover for SR112 that would bypass S. Royal Poinciana Blvd and LeJeune Road with an off ramp on the centerlane of NW 36th Street near Kenmore and Sheridan Drive. This would save locals time and reduce the volume of traffic at the intersection of NW 36th Street and LeJeune. It was unclear if this would reduce the westbound lanes at the intersection from 3 lanes to 2 lanes. This was not a popular option among those in attendance, but I think there are too many unanswered questions.

DOWNLOAD THE PDF PRESENTATION FROM THE FDOT

VIDEOS FROM THE MEETING

MEETING

The meeting as held on the top floor of the Holiday Inn. The room was well attended with many residents in attendance including the entire Virginia Gardens Council and Virginia Gardens Mayor Spencer Deno. Miami Springs Mayor Maria Mitchell represented the City of Miami Springs.