Westward Ho! So desires MDX, Miami-Dade Expressway Authority and it’s board of directors. Project #83618, included in MDX’s five year work program would extend the 836 Dolphin Expressway further west to Krome Avenue and then south to the Tamiami Airport. In our dealings with MDX we have heard many reasons justifying this project; it will alleviate congestion, provide an evacuation route, yada, yada, yada.
The reality is that this project will promote more sprawl, further damage the already violated Everglades, degrade our water supply, pose a direct threat to the $12 billion federal-state Everglades restoration project, threaten wildlife on and on and on.
You have to ask do we really need this? Well do we? No we don’t! MDX and FDOT are pouring hundreds of millions of toll dollars into expanding capacity on their existing roads, Turnpike, 874, 836. This is more than enough to handle present and future capacity needs without extending the 836 west and then south. But the very mandate of MDX does not allow it to consider other viable forms of transportation. This is a fundamental problem that has MDX’s day numbered.
But we have to remember the composition of the MDX board of directors; land developers, bankers, land use attorneys and lobbyist. And they do what they do best. Not usually what is best for the long term transportation needs of our community.
We must all stand up and oppose this project! We encourage you to make your voices heard. Please contact MDX representatives Teri Garcia tgarcia@mdxway.com or Mario Diaz at madiaz@mdxway.com.
Check back with us often as we are taking a long term approach to this opposition and will be posting important information in the days to come.
Carlos Garcia
Co-chair, RollBackTolls.com
Many years ago I suggested a roadway similar to the one in Atlanta and Jacksonville, which circles the city, with spokes which connect into the inner areas of the city, keeping congestion off the big roads heading into downtown. Is this possibly what they are thinking? If so it actually might work to ease sprawl, keeping people in the city. mkb
You would think that more roads should be a solution. But just from observation with the new lanes recently opened on the Palmetto south of Bird Road, more lanes simply means they spread their incompetence out over those new lanes and still wind up wasting time and resources. I see them everyday, there are certain motorists that are always going to be poor drivers. they usually have a phone pressed to their heads and they are more concerned about their phone conversations than driving to their destinations. I’ve never seen so many drivers that insist on crossing over several lanes into traffic that is moving faster than they are. It’s as though they haven’t grasped the concept of matching speed to merge over.
“it will alleviate congestion, provide an evacuation route, yada, yada, yada.”
So true, the motorists of South Florida are so incompetent, they couldn’t evacuate the area. The proof is in their daily commute, when the sun is shining and the weather pleasant they can’t even get around without screwing that up. How on earth do they expect to leave in an evacuation in inclement weather ?