The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is an independent agency created in December 1994 by the State of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and the

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...

Commission. Since 1997 MDX has operated and maintained five expressways formerly operated by the

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of t ...

(FDOT): * Gratigny Parkway (SR 924) * Airport Expressway (SR 112) *

Dolphin Expressway A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

(SR 836) *

Don Shula Expressway Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

(SR 874) *

Snapper Creek Expressway Snapper(s) may refer to: Animals * Lutjanidae, a family of fish known as snappers **''Lutjanus campechanus'', a fish found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic coast of the United States ** Bigeye snapper (''Lutjanus lutjanus''), a fish that p ...

(SR 878) All five expressways are all electronic toll roads, requiring the use of

SunPass SunPass is an electronic toll collection system within the state of Florida, United States. It was created in 1999 by the Florida Department of Transportation's (FDOT's) Office of Toll Operations, operating now as a division of Florida's Turnpik ...

or a "toll-by-plate" program and do not accept cash, and the free movement sections were removed. The Gratigny Parkway, Don Shula Expressway, and Snapper Creek Expressway became all electronic in 2010, while the Airport Expressway and Dolphin Expressway were converted 2014.Garvin, Glenn
"Miami-Dade's 836, 112 expressways to close at night to install toll equipment"
''Miami Herald'' 25 July 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014 Completely funded by toll revenues, MDX has been aggressively upgrading and updating its roads over the past decade, including the ongoing Dolphin Expressway extension (the first phase was completed in 2007) and re-engineering of several interchanges of its two oldest expressways (the Airport and Dolphin). Long-term plans include the redesign and reconstruction of longtime bottlenecks in the Shula and Dolphin Expressways, most notably the often-backed-up Killian Parkway/ SR 990 interchange near Miami Dade College-Kendall Campus and the heavily congested interchange with the

Palmetto Expressway Palmetto (meaning "little palm") may refer to: Palms Several small palms in the Arecaceae (palm tree) family: *in the genus ''Sabal'': **Bermuda palmetto, ''Sabal bermudana'' **Birmingham palmetto, ''Sabal'' 'Birmingham' **Dwarf, or bush palme ...

(SR 826) near the extreme southwestern end of

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most co ...

Markings

All MDX highways use the shield-shaped signs reserved by FDOT for toll roads, with the MDX logo (see above) attached below the "shield". In addition, all MDX highways use a uniquely designed mileage marker. Instead of the green "MILE XX" markers commonly seen on

interstate highways The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

, the five MDX expressways use blue mileage markers featuring (from top to bottom, in white): a single letter indicating the direction of travel, the

State Road A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

designation of the highway (complete with outline of the State of Florida), and two numbers separated by a horizontal line ("2" on the top, "4" on the bottom of the line represents Mile Marker 2.4 from either the southern or western end of the expressway). These markers are placed on the edge of the

shoulder The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle (collarbone), the scapula (shoulder blade), and the humerus (upper arm bone) as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder mak ...

every 0.2 miles along the expressway. The Gratigny Parkway has two of these (Mile Markers 5.0 and 5.2) on a surface street near

Opa-locka Opa-locka is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,463, up from 15,219 in 2010. The city was developed by Glenn Curtiss. Developed based on a ''One Thousand and One Nights'' theme, Op ...

on Northwest 119th Street just east of the end of its easternmost ramp). Prior to the removal of free movement sections, on portions of a MDX route where no tolls are ahead, the TOLL in the green section of the TOLL shield was removed.

Airport Expressway

State Road 112, locally known as Airport Expressway is a 4-mile-long east–west expressway connecting Miami International Airport in Miami to

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

and

I-195 Interstate 195 (I-195) is the designation for the following Interstate Highways in the United States, all of which are related to I-95: *Interstate 195 (District of Columbia), a future designation for the north–south portion of I-395 from the Sout ...

, which ultimately connects to Miami Beach.

Dolphin Expressway

State Road 836, locally known as the Dolphin Expressway, is a 13.8-mile-long toll road currently extending from Southwest 137th Avenue in the west to I-95 in the east. The section of roadway east of I-95 is designated as I-395 or the

MacArthur Causeway The General Douglas MacArthur Causeway is a six-lane causeway that connects Downtown Miami to South Beach via Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County. The highway is the singular roadway connecting the mainland and beaches to Watson Island and the ba ...

Don Shula Expressway

State Road 874, locally known as the Don Shula Expressway, is 7 miles long, connecting the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike and Palmetto Expressway in central Miami-Dade County, Florida. As of July 17, 2010, the Don Shula Expressway no longer accepts cash.

Snapper Creek Expressway

State Road 878, locally known as the Snapper Creek Expressway, stretches for 3 miles between Don Shula Expressway (State Road 874) and U.S. Highway 1 (South Dixie Highway - SR 5). This provides access to Kendall and South Miami. Although constructed, improved and maintained through toll revenue, the Snapper Creek Expressway was untolled until July 17, 2010, when open road tolling (ORT) was initiated on the Expressway.

Gratigny Parkway

State Road 924, locally known as Gratigny Parkway, is a 5.2-mile-long limited access all-electronic toll road maintained by the Miami-Dade Expressway, running east to west. The Gratigny Parkway starts east of the Palmetto Expressway/I-75 interchange in Hialeah and ends at Northwest 32nd Avenue in North Miami. The section of roadway east of NW 32nd Avenue is a surface street (Northwest 119th Street) also known as Gratigny Road. Despite its relatively short length, SR 924 is a major east–west artery in northern Miami-Dade County, Florida.

References

{{reflist

External links

Miami-Dade Expressway Authority websiteInformation about the MDX's conversion to open road tolling
Transportation in Miami-Dade County, Florida Toll road authorities of the United States 1994 establishments in Florida