New Expressway Proposal for Krome Avenue Is a Horrible Idea

This way to more gridlock.

Driving on Krome Avenue is a journey through old Florida's last frontier -- a place before suburban sprawl, crippling traffic congestion, and overdevelopment choked our wonderful, incredible ecosystem.

Whenever Banana Republican has to hop from North Dade to South Dade, we take the two-lane road so we can enjoy the blissful scenery surrounding it.
The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX), a semi-independent agency that manages the county's tolled highways, is on a mission to expand the Dolphin Expressway west of Florida's Turnpike. One of the proposed alignments could take a north-to-south turn along Krome, over land that is off-limits to more development.

Though the MDX doesn't yet have the funds to begin building the extension, the agency does have $6.9 million in taxpayer funds for an engineering firm to "study" the proposal for the next five years.

MDX officials told the Miami Herald the expansion is needed to provide relief for the far western suburbs of Miami-Dade, where homeowners sit in gridlock traveling east on local roads to get to the turnpike or the Palmetto Expressway. They're even designating Krome a "dangerous" road because its passing lanes increase the chances of head-on collisions.

Javier Rodriguez, executive director of MDX, told the Herald: "It's crazy what is happening out there. We have to deal with an existing problem that we have. How are we going to deal with growth?"

It's a classic scare tactic used by pro-development advocates to continue creating more sprawl in Miami-Dade. The only people who'd benefit are real estate developers, as well as the lobbyists sitting on the MDX board of directors.