Opa-locka West Airport was a county-owned public

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, a city in Miami-Dade County,

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 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It covered an area of which contained two

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s: 9/27 measuring 3,000 x 60 ft (914 x 18 m) and 18/36 measuring 3,000 x 60 ft (914 x 18 m). The airport opened in 1970 and was designed to relieve congestion at the nearby

Opa-locka Airport Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (formerly Opa-locka Airport and Opa-locka Executive Airport until 2014) is a joint civil-military airport located in Miami-Dade County, Florida north of downtown Miami. Part of the airport is in the city limit ...

. There was no public access to the airfield by land and it served as a remote area for touch-and-go training. Light twin-engine aircraft such as the

Cessna 310 The Cessna 310 is an American four-to-six-seat, low-wing, twin-engine monoplane produced by Cessna between 1954 and 1980. It was the first twin-engine aircraft that Cessna put into production after World War II. Development The 310 first fle ...

were the largest used at this airport. There were no storage facilities and no aircraft based at the airport. Expansion was limited due to the presence of

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

s. The airport had 12,100

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

aircraft operations in the year 2002. The airport was badly damaged by

Hurricane Wilma Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part o ...

in October 2005. Miami-Dade County announced in June 2006 that the airport would be decommissioned. The county planned to use the land as a

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

, with an estimated yield of of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

worth between $500 million and $1.2 billion. Countyline Dragway, a one-eighth mile drag racing strip sanctioned by the

International Hot Rod Association The International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) is the second-largest drag racing sanctioning body after the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). The Carrier Era 1971-1987 The IHRA was formed in November 1970 by businessman Larry Carrier. Through ...

(IHRA), operated at the former airport site from January 2007 to May 2014. It was located at the intersection of U.S. Route 27 (Okeechobee Road) and Krome Avenue, just south of the Miami-Dade/ Broward county line.

References

External links

Countyline Dragway
* {{Florida airports Airports in Miami-Dade County, Florida Defunct airports in Florida