Public input at June 20 Commission meeting is key step for Kendall Parkway

Behind every great public work is, naturally, the public. That’s why multiple public meetings have been held during the planning-study phase of the plan for a MDX multimodal corridor to serve the west end of Miami-Dade County.

On April 25, a Town Hall meeting took place to provide an additional avenue for input for the new Kendall Parkway. Now, the next and critical meeting is set for June 20 before the County Commission.

The Kendall Parkway is a new north-south expressway being proposed by the MDX Authority to run along the county’s western flank, from the point where SR 836 ends today at NW137th Ave., all the way south to SW 136th Street in West Kendall.

For the residents of this congested – and mostly gridlocked – area of the metropolitan area, the new Parkway spells relief. Southwest Miami-Dade has been the fastest growing area of the County with no additional major transportation infrastructure proposed to serve the 600,000 residents and businesses in the area.

It’s a proven fact that the Turnpike and the Palmetto Expressway simply cannot address the existing demand or the projected capacity needed to provide mobility in this area. Many residents, who are forced to spend an hour to an hour and a half each way in their daily commute, want those hours back into their lives – in the form of more time with the family.

But before the new Kendall Parkway becomes a reality, which could be as soon as three years from now, there are many steps that must be accomplished – with public input being key right now.

Miami-Dade County has submitted an amendment to the Comprehensive Master Plan to allow for incorporation of the Parkway in the county’s Comprehensive Master Plan. This amendment sponsored by County Commissioner Joe Martinez will be voted on by the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners on June 20. Upon final approval by the County Commission, the project can break ground by the end of this year.

In order to make the Kendall Parkway a reality, business owners and residents who call West Kendall home need to speak at the public hearing – to let Commissioners know how the Kendall Parkway can change their quality of life. The public meeting takes place June 20 at 9:30 a.m., at the Stephen P. Clark Center at 111 NW 1 St., in downtown Miami.

This meeting must be as well attended as the April 25 Town Hall that was hosted by Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez and Commissioner Martinez. More than 450 concerned citizens attended that informative event, the vast majority of whom showed up to show voice their support.

What they learned is that once the Parkway is in place, they will not only be able to access this new expressway within minutes of leaving home, but it also will feature a multimodal transportation corridor that includes Xpress Technology (XT) Lanes for bus-express transit. There is even a 14-mile nature trail for biking and jogging, and buffer areas to the urbanized area.

Now, leading up to the June 20 meeting, Mayor Gimenez and Commissioner Martinez, along with the MDX professional engineers and Miami-Dade County Planning staff, are studying the valuable input received from the public.

Over the next few weeks, they will review the opportunities and possibilities related to changing the current proposed north-south alignment of the highway to a path that runs a bit further west of SW 167th Ave. They are also looking at entrances to the 14-mile Nature Trail, friendly elevated connections, and park-and-ride options.

For information, residents are invited to check the MDX website for a “Congestion Calculator” that shows how much time they waste in traffic.

But right now, it is a known fact that the average round trip for West Kendall commuters takes:

  • Three hours daily
  • 15 hours weekly
  • 780 hours annually (33 days in traffic)
  • One year of life wasted in traffic over 10-years

Construction the Kendall Parkway, to cut the daily commute and reduce congestion for residents, could begin in 2019.

Visit www.mdxway.com/kendallparkway for more information.


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6 COMMENTS

  1. We llive in West Kendall. We are a family of 4. My husband works at Doral, daughter 1 is doing an internship in Miami Beach , daughter 2 goes to FIU and works in Town and Country,I have to go to North Miami and Hialeah at least twice a week.
    Last year we spent about 15K driving, between gas, car payments, maintenance, insurance and Sunpass.
    This year we will spend more.
    There is not enough space to park on the driveways or in the Association anymore .
    The Palmetto Extension ( Kendall Parkway is the sales pitch name) is not going to solve that.
    I don’t want another Expressway , I want to have mass transportation!

  2. Yes lets go back to riding around on horses…and lets make sure we don’t chop down a few trees because we need a place for miami residents to dump their trash of course. Who are these hippies that don’t want this highway?

    I have a Job…I have to drive to that Job. Whether this highway is added or not you still have the same number of people needing to commute because of how many homes are in that area and continue to be created in that area. And you can make the case that more fossil fuel is being used cause cars are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for hours on local roads.

    Sorry I work…I have a life….I can’t even go out of my house to pass by publix because of how bad the traffic is in the mornings and afternoons. It has to be fixed. We need this highway.

    Rail sounds great…but is never going to happen…and if it does why can’t we have both? Rail and highways?

  3. No more highways, this just leads to more cares which then lead to more highways , this is an unending cycle . We need to use all available funds to be put into Mass transit . The idea that more roads will be filled with more cars is common sense. And preferable mass transit on rail ,since transit on the road will just be in the same bottle neck as everyone else . Its also we stop using so much fossil fuel , whose price fluctuate so much that no body can budget for the price of gas to do long term financing . Yes its expensive , but its not going to get cheaper waiting for funding from higher up. If need be lets see what kind of corporation some local business can help with cutting lost production time due to traffic jams . Maybe ask around , maybe they will contribute for their bottom line and good relation with the committee .

  4. So… we are ignoring the fact that it will be past the UDB? Which cannot happen, give developers a crack and they were find a way to build into the Everglades, this Parkway is that crack .

  5. Let’s at least call this road what it should be called.

    The “West” Kendall Parkway….that is where it is!!!!!

    Now,that we have named it correctly, we can begin the discussion on the 20th.

  6. Hi
    Great reporting, but a couple of questions. Length? about 15 miles? Width? How many lanes of traffic? Preliminary estimates of cost (surely we have ballpark estimates for price per linear foot for this type of road improvement)? How will it be paid for? How much will it cost to maintain and how will that be paid? With those numbers we could figure out how much up lift we have to see in property values/taxes or retail sales tax to make it feasible. We really should check the numbers at this point to ensure we don’t get ourselves a boondoogle.

    I am also concerned that there will soon follow great pressure to extend this facility north to the new mall.

Comments are closed.