Time to Build New Highways is Right Now
We loved it when the
whole building would shake. Everybody would look around to see if any
damage was done to the classroom. West Miami
Junior High School was directly adjacent to the new Palmetto
Expressway being built just a few hundred yards west of the band
building. A canal, which ran from the Coral Gables Waterway to the
Tamiami Canal, was between the new roadwork and the school, but that
was it. Dynamiting went on during regular school hours, and we
seventh-graders just loved it. The teachers tried to maintain their
composure, but every once in a while, their eyes would dance around
the room with the look of "Why now?"
Back then, the Palmetto
was so far away from Miami, they didn't even build overpasses north
of Okeechobee Road, still relying on stop signs on streets like 103rd
Street, where cows still watched the sparse traffic whiz by. Today,
the Palmetto is part of the main thoroughfare system in Miami-Dade
County. Huge shopping centers have stood for more than 30 years where
pastures once dominated the countryside.
Greater Miami has long since expanded past the now venerable
expressway, being supplanted by the Florida Turnpike Extension, which
parallels the old Palmetto several miles to the west. It too is no
longer outside the greater Miami area, being a regular traffic bearer
for most people who work in downtown Miami but live in the
communities such as Kendale Lakes and the Hammocks.
The
growth and expansion of Florida's east coast is now catching up with
Southwest Florida. Recent Sun editorials have highlighted the
inadequacy of our current network of highways. The seemingly daily
closure of I-75 due to traffic accidents proves constantly that
alternatives are needed now, not just in 20 or 30 years. When a
single truck accident can close our one main evacuation route for
days, warning flags should go up with every planner in the area.
I have
always supported a new link to the Florida Turnpike system, a toll
road that runs from Wildwood, south of Ocala, to just south of
Homestead. I would like to see a new turnpike link leave the current
turnpike at Orlando and head southwest to Naples.
Access
to the Southwest Florida Turnpike extension could be easily made from
Charlotte County via State Road 31, or perhaps even U.S. 17. There
are other alternatives to the heavily traveled 1-75, but so far there
has been no planning other than multilaning the already busy highway.
One
thing is certain: U.S. 41 does not adequately provide an alternative
to traffic rerouted off the interstate, other than as an emergency
bypass. Your kids will always remember if the opportunity to build
new highways was ignored by their parents. They will live here 40
years from now-and so will their kids. The days of blasting next to a
school are gone, and if we aren't smart, so will the opportunity to
build needed highways while the property is still affordable.
George
Mindling ©
2004
