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As far back as most folks can remember, the eastbound exit ramp to Miami International Airport (MIA) on SR 836 has been via the far-left hand lane. This has been a source of considerable consternation as airport-bound motorists have been forced to weave through three lanes of traffic just to line up with the slower moving traffic in the left lanes approaching the airport exit.
The good news is that good sense has finally prevailed. After 40 years of lamenting one of the most congested bottlenecks in South Florida, the airport exit has been permanently relocated to the right-hand side.
The Dolphin Expressway Modernization Project reached this major construction milestone in late October with the completion of a new right-lane exit flyover ramp to MIA/northbound NW 42nd Avenue/LeJeune Road.
Motorists now traveling eastbound on the SR836/Dolphin Expressway to catch a flight at MIA, can safely stay in the far-right hand travel lane to access the new right lane exit ramp, which has been configured to begin more than a half-mile sooner than the old left-lane exit.
Also new and exciting is how the new exit shares the same ramp with the new exit to NW 45th Avenue. Once on the ramp, the lanes split one way for drivers seeking to go to MIA/NW 42nd Avenue and the other way for drivers seeking to access NW 45th Avenue.
In the coming weeks, MDX will demolish the old left-hand exit flyover bridge, while continuing with the removal of the existing concrete median separator on the expressway. This demolition project creates the envelope for an express bus service that will be operated by MDX in its own lane utilizing a wider median shoulder, as well as four through lanes for vehicular traffic.
“MDX’s construction of special lanes for express bus service delivers on its commitment to provide mobility options for daily commuters with the implementation of the east-west corridor of the SMART Plan,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.
Most of us only go to the airport for vacation travel or during the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season to visit loved ones, so if you are traveling to the airport from West Kendall, West Dade, North or South Dade via the Turnpike or the Palmetto and you miss the new exit, don’t panic – there’s a first time for everything. Just proceed to the next exit at NW 27th Avenue, where MDX reconstructed the exit with a Diverging Diamond Interchange (DDI) to improve traffic flow on NW 27th Avenue.
A little-known secret of the new DDI is that motorists can now exit and stay on the left-hand side to make a U-Turn underneath SR 836 and get back onto the highway traveling west.
Naysayers who said that Miamians wouldn’t be able to grasp how to navigate through the new DDI were proven wrong as the new NW 27th Avenue exit is presently working quite smoothly.
Next up, MDX will complete the reconstruction of NW 57th Avenue with Miami’s second DDI, which is scheduled to open to traffic in mid-November. The entire Dolphin Expressway Modernization Project is scheduled for completion in 2019.
