State Road 112 (SR 112) is a east–west

state highway 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 Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

connecting

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary international airport serving Miami and its Miami metropolitan area, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of Florida. It hosts over 1, ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Miami Beach Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean an ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. Between the airport and

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

, it is locally known as the Airport Expressway (or the Airport Tollway), and is a

controlled-access A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

between SR 9 and I-95. Between I-95 and Alton Road ( SR 907A) in Miami Beach, SR 112 is signed only as Interstate 195 as it crosses

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

by way of the

Julia Tuttle Causeway Julia may refer to: People *Julia (given name), including a list of people with the name *Julia (surname), including a list of people with the name *Julia gens, a patrician family of Ancient Rome *Julia (clairvoyant) (fl. 1689), lady's maid of Qu ...

. Between I-195 and its eastern terminus at Collins Avenue ( SR A1A), the SR 112 signs are present but infrequent, and the road is locally maintained as Arthur Godfrey Road. Since the state of

renumbered its Florida State Roads in 1945, a grid system of designation was imposed. While Miami is in a region of Florida in which all three-digit State Roads should begin with an "8" or a "9", its collection of State Roads has a few that begin with a "1" (usually used south of the

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

state line and near Gainesville and Flagler Beach, both over 300 miles (480 km) away).

Route description

Airport Expressway

SR 112 begins at the main entrance of

, at the intersection of NW 21st Street and State Road 953 (Le Jeune Road), and heads north. From here until the interchange with

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

, the road is known as the Airport Expressway and is maintained by the

Greater Miami Expressway Agency The Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX) (formerly the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority, MDX) is an independent agency governed by the state of Florida. Since 1997, GMX has operated and maintained five expressways that run within the county. All ...

(GMX). For its first mile or so, the road runs parallel to SR 953 and an airport runway, with its lanes featuring a divided left-hand driving direction. About north of the southern terminus, SR 112 features an at-grade

railroad crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line or the road etc. crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The ...

, near the eastern end of one of the airport's runways. The road swings to its main east-west orientation past the airport, with its lanes crossing to a normal driving direction just to the east of its partial interchange with SR 948, which also provides limited access to

U.S. Route 27 U.S. Route 27 or U.S. Highway 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I ...

. After crossing NW 37th Avenue, the Airport Expressway passes through its first of two toll gantries, charging $0.35 for vehicles with SunPass transponders and $0.70 for the remaining Toll-by-Plate users. It also runs roughly parallel to the

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the List ...

Orange Line, crossing under it just west of NW 32nd Avenue. SR 112 then interchanges with SR 9 (NW 27th Avenue), and then NW 22nd Avenue half a mile later. From here, the expressway passes through the second toll gantry (at the location of the former toll plaza), charging the same rates as the first gantry. Near this gantry, SR 112 passes the southern side of the Earlington Heights Metrorail station, where the two lines of the Metrorail system merge, with both the Airport Expressway and the Metro continuing to run parallel eastwards for another or so. Just before SR 112's partial interchange with SR 933 (NW 12th Avenue), the Metrorail tracks cross over the Airport Expressway as they curve southwards. About later, the Airport Expressway ends at the

stack interchange A directional interchange, colloquially known as a stack interchange, is a type of grade-separated junction between two controlled-access highways that allows for free-flowing movement to and from all directions of traffic. These interchanges e ...

with

(alternatively known as the 36th Street Interchange), with SR 112 and the pavement continuing eastwards as Interstate 195.

I-195

The section of SR 112 connecting

in the west with

in the east is also designated as I-195. This portion of the route is signed as I-195, with SR 112 becoming an

unsigned highway An unsigned highway is a highway that has been assigned a route number, but does not bear road markings that would conventionally be used to identify the route with that number. Highways are left unsigned for a variety of reasons, and example ...

. I-195 and SR 112 cross

by way of the

. At SR 907A (Alton Road), I-195 terminates while SR 112 continues east as Arthur Godfrey Road.

Surface section

East of Alton Road, SR 112 continues as the palm-lined

Arthur Godfrey Arthur Morton Godfrey (August 31, 1903 – March 16, 1983) was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer. At the peak of his success, in the early to mid-1950s, Godfrey was heard on radio and seen on television up to six days ...

Road (also known as West 41st Street), a four-lane surface road. It passes through the southern end of

Nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

, past shops and low-rise office buildings, crossing the Biscayne Waterway before passing along the southern edge of North Beach Elementary School. Continuing past more shops and a hotel, SR 112 crosses the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a Navigability, inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, the ...

before immediately meeting the southbound half of SR A1A. Past here, the road becomes one lane in each direction and meets the northbound half of SR A1A one block later, terminating amidst the high-rises of

Mid-Beach Mid-Beach is a neighborhood in Miami Beach, Florida. Famous buildings in the Oceanfront neighborhood are the Fontainebleau Hotel, the Eden Roc, Faena Hotel Miami Beach, Faena Forum, the Ocean Spray Hotel and the Blue and Green Diamond. Th ...

. 41st Street continues on a short distance into a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet. Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...

Tolls

Tolls on the Airport Expressway are all electronic, meaning there are no cash transactions. Payment is done either via SunPass transponders or via toll-by-plate billing, the latter of which charges double of the former. Two toll gantries are located along the expressway portion of the road, each charging $0.35 for SunPass users and $0.70 for Toll-by-Plate. As of November 15, 2014, it costs $0.70 to travel the entire expressway portion via SunPass (and $1.40 via Toll-by-Plate). All motorists are charged at least one toll for using the road; there are no "free sections" as existed prior to the electronic toll conversion in 2014.

History

Construction of SR 112 began in 1959, and the expressway was opened to traffic on December 23, 1961 (six months after the Palmetto Expressway, SR 826). Its initial name was the 36th Street Tollway, but use of the name eventually faded in favor of the more popular "Airport Expressway". Initially the toll road had its western terminus at the congested intersection with LeJeune Road ( SR 953), Northwest 36th Street ( SR 48), and Okeechobee Road ( US 27 / SR 25) just east of the airport. It wasn't until 1990 when SR 112 was extended southward and westward onto the airport property, terminating at the main entrance. The numbering of SR 112 is an anomaly in the current grid-based system. The road was assigned its number while it was in its planning stages; it retained the number as FDOT made widespread changes in the numbering of State Roads in southeastern Florida in the 1970s and early 1980s. On November 15, 2014, the Airport Expressway became an all electronic toll road, no longer collecting cash, and the only ways to pay are either by the SunPass transponders or billing by the toll-by-plate program, at double the cost. This also eliminated all "free movement" sections of the tolled section of SR 112, and restored tolls westbound, which had been removed in March 1984. This change was first announced in 2010, and along with the nearby Dolphin Expressway, SR 112 was the last of the MDX expressways to be converted to

open road tolling Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of tollbooths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major ...

Interstate 195 Spur

On December 23, 1961, three signed roads along the route of SR 112 were opened: the 36th Street Tollway, Interstate 195, and Spur Interstate 195. I-195 Spur was the surface portion of the east–west state route along Arthur Godfrey Road in

, connecting I-195's eastern terminus to SR A1A. The I-195 Spur signs disappeared from the road shortly after the designation was decommissioned by the newly formed

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

in the late 1960s, and is now signed solely (but scarcely) as SR 112.

Future

While repeated attempts to secure funding for extending SR 112 along SR 948 to the Palmetto Expressway and the

Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike The Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (HEFT), designated as unsigned State Road 821 (SR 821), is the southern extension of Florida's Turnpike, a controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Florida maintained by Florida's T ...

have failed, 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 U.S. state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the power ...

is constructing a connector between the Dolphin Expressway and the Airport Expressway as part of a massive project (the

Miami Intermodal Center Miami Intermodal Center (MIC) is an intermodal passenger transport, intermodal rapid transit, commuter rail, local bus, and intercity bus transportation hub in Miami-Dade County, Florida, just outside the Miami city limits near the Grapeland ...

) tying together expressways, rail lines, and the airport. It remains to be seen if the connector will have its own FDOT designation or if the SR 112 will be extended over it to connect the Miami area's two primary east–west expressways.

Major intersections

References

External links

FDOT
GIS data
Florida @ SouthEastRoads - Interstate 195 and Florida 112
{{DEFAULTSORT:112 State highways in Florida State roads in Miami Toll roads in Florida State roads in Miami-Dade County, Florida Hialeah, Florida State roads in Miami Beach, Florida 1961 establishments in Florida