Canceled expressways in Florida

There have been plans in Florida for much needed expressways, but some were never constructed due to financial problems, community opposition and environmental issues.

Pinellas County

Pinellas County has had its fair share of cancelled expressways, much more so than most metropolitan areas in Florida. The high cost of acquiring right of way in this densely populated county was the key factor in killing most of these freeways. All freeways in blue on the map to the left were proposed in a 1970 plan, all were cancelled by 1982. By 1982, the county had developed enough for planners to attempt to find other ways to move people around, and to instead widen existing arterials.

It is important to note that in the 1970s, U.S. Route 19 was never supposed to be a freeway. The Belcher Freeway would have provided the relief route. Planning aims by 1984 had switched to instead widen and upgrade US 19 to expressway/freeway.

Gandy Freeway

12.6 miles, The Gandy Freeway would have connected with the proposed connection to the crosstown Expressway in Tampa, and provided a route due west to the beaches. The low likelihood of the Hillsborough County portion being constructed, and of increasing suburbanation of Pinellas Park led to this freeway's cancellation in 1979. Remains of this freeway can be seen in the Gandy Blvd. interchange at I-275, the separated grade diamond interchange at US 19 with Gandy Blvd as limited access, and of the very wide Right-of-Way preserved along Gandy Blvd. east of I-275.

Pinellas Belt Expressway

7.4 miles, The Pinellas Belt Expressway, or beltway, was actually budgeted in 1974 for construction in the 1979 fiscal year but intense community opposition stopped the freeway from progressing. Construction would have disrupted retail outlets along Tyrone Blvd and US 19 Alt, and Right-of-Way acquisition would have been too expensive because of the nice neighborhoods it would have traversed. The full freeway interchange at US 19 Alt and SR 666 in Seminole is all that remains of this Belt Expressway.

=Saint Pete-Clearwater Expressway=

Spelled as St. Pete-Clearwater Expressway. 20.2 miles, This freeway was the highest profile of all planned in the county, and would have been built as an interstate with mostly federal funds. Land acquisition would have been easy as most of the route was railroad right-of-way. It would have provided a route directly from downtown St. Pete to downtown Clearwater and would have replaced much of US 19 through the county. The freeway was officially cancelled on May 12, 1978 - for a pretty simple reason. New federal guidelines for interstates indicated that any approved route going forward would have to be 10 miles or less in length, and be a 'final link' in the interstate system as a whole, instead of a new road. Attention after that cancellation began to turn towards upgrading US 19 instead. I think today the railroad is used as a bike/pedestrian trail, a rail trail .

Ulmerton Expressway

8 miles, The Ulmerton Expressway would have run over Ulmerton Road from I-275 westward, and was to have provided an important link for east/west traffic through Largo. This was a freeway that never got off the ground, as land acquisition would have been extremely expensive. All that remains of this freeway plan is Ulmerton Road's very wide Right-of-Way, preserved by the state for the freeway when Ulmerton Road was expanded in the early 1970s. This freeway was dead by 1976. Long term widening of Ulmerton Road using the extended Right-of-Way to expand from 4 lanes to 6 lanes is expected to be completed in Spring of 2009.

tate Road 694A

3.6 miles, This freeway would have run from 137th St to SR 595 and connected the east/west Gandy Freeway directly with the beaches. It was dead by 1972, and never brought to public attention.

Belcher Freeway

10.6 miles, This freeway is yet another casualty of the high cost of acquiring the wide girth of land needed to built it. US 19 had horrible traffic as far back as 1965, and the Belcher Freeway was considered in a Greiner Inc., study that year. While public reception was positive, the freeway was cancelled in May 1978 along with the St. Pete-Clearwater Freeway. As traffic projections without that link would have not made it cost effective or useful to construct.

unset Point Freeway

7.2 miles, The Sunset Point Fwy. was never seriously considered, although traffic studies in the early 1970s indicated that Drew St. would need a reliever freeway route by 1990. Upgrades to SR 60 were planned instead, and public opposition by Clearwater residents to the freeway was strong. The Sunset Point freeway never even made it to the design or planning stage.

tate Road 60 Freeway Upgrade

6 miles, SR 60 is a busy, retail-loaded east/west route in Clearwater. Legions of tourists from the north and east use it as their primary route to Clearwater Beach. It was only logical to consider upgrading it to a freeway to alleviate this traffic. Local merchants were against this upgrade, as were most Clearwater residents. SR 60 instead was widened and an arterial bypass of downtown Clearwater was constructed. The freeway was dead by May 1975 when it was dropped from the books.

Clearwater North Freeway

4 miles, This proposed freeway would have connected downtown Clearwater with US 19 and points north. This was another Clearwater-area freeway never seriously considered, and it never made it to design or planning.

Miami-Dade County

Dolphin Expressway Airport Spur

The Dolphin Expressway was originally supposed to be built on Northwest 20th Street, but instead 14th Street was chosen. A 1964 plan called for two options to solving the traffic problems near Miami International Airport . The first option was to convert LeJeune Road into an 8-lane freeway between the planned 14th Street Tollway and the Airport Expressway. The second option was to build a spur route from the 14th Street Tollway that would connect to the entrance of MIA, thus relieving LeJeune Road.

The spur would branch off the Tollway just east of NW 37th Avenue and run north-south on the west side of NW 37th Avenue. North of the golf course, it would cross the Tamiami Canal and head west to the MIA terminal entrance on Northwest 21st Street. A stack interchange was built at LeJeune Rd and 21st Street . Today instead of a freeway interchange, it is an interchange between 21st Street , LeJeune Road and the airport . There were other plans, one was for the freeway to be on the east side of 37th Avenue which would require massive displacement of homes , the other was for the freeway to branch off at 27th Avenue also requiring massive displacement of homes .

Gratigny Parkway

The Gratigny Parkway of today is much shorter than the original planned length . The original western end was supposed to be The Florida Turnpike . The eastern terminus was supposed to be SR 922, or it would have merged with the SR 922 and taking over its causeway (stealing it). The original western terminus at the Turnpike was moved back to the Palmetto because of new plans to extend I-75 south to Miami from Fort Lauderdale and keep I-595 as an indepent freeway. The Gratigny continues to the west as I-75 and curves northbound at 138th Street/Hialeah Gardens Drive. An extension to the Turnpike in the west is in MDX's 2025 master plan , that would reduce the length of I-75. The portion east of 32nd Avenue was never completed due to community opposition.

Hialeah Expressway

The Hialeah Expressway would have been a third east-west route across Dade County, from Alton Road and 47th Street in Miami Beach to the planned West Dade Expressway, on the way serving Hialeah, the second most populated city in Dade County.

In the east, the Hialeah Expressway would have begun at an interchange at Alton Road and 47th Street in Miami Beach, and crossed Biscayne Bay over a brand new causeway dubbed the Beach Causeway. It would cross over the proposed Interama Expressway and I-95, and run along a path between NW 79th and 62nd Street. Upon crossing Okeechobee Road, it would parallel NW 74th Street until its terminus with the West Dade Expressway, for a distance of 16 miles.

The Hialeah Expressway was never built, and it was cancelled during the early 1970s along with most of the planned expressways throughout the county. This was because voters chose to direct funding from roads toward mass transit projects and the planned Miami-Dade Metrorail . The freeway was never built, but Northwest 74th Street was partially converted into a freeway . Hialeah has always been anti-freeway but the Gratigny Parkway and I-75 managed to get built.

Interama Expressway

The Interama Expressway was supposed to be a north-south expressway planned for eastern Dade County. It would have run from an intersection at I-95 and the proposed Snake Creek Expressway, paralleled US 1 from there to an intersection with proposed South Dixie Expressway and I-95, slicing through downtown Miami along the way. Also Called the Midbay Causeway.

The Interama Expressway would essentially be an alternative route to the heavily traveled Biscayne Blvd, which the expressway would parallel and in some instances supersede. It was also meant to serve long distance trips for commuters between northeast Dade and downtown Miami, thus relieving I-95 and Biscayne Blvd.

Like the Hialeah Expressway , the Interama was never built due to a change of plans to build mass transit and the Miami-Dade Metrorail .

LeJeune-Douglas Expressway

The freeway was meant to relieve traffic between the Palmetto and I-95 on a LeJeune Road-Douglas Road corridor . It was to run from US 1 in Coral Gables to the Palmetto Expressway in Carol City/Miami Gardens .

outh Dixie Expressway/I-95 Extension

This freeway was supposed to take over part of US 1 and go to Homestead. Part of the Turnpike Extension (from over SW 248th St to US 1) is part of the former freeway.

Broward County

Cypress Creek Expressway

The Cypress Creek Expressway was one of four east-west expressways proposed across Broward County. It would have run along the present day Cypress Creek and McNab Road, serving Fort Lauderdale, Pompano Beach, Margate, and Tamarac.

The Cypress Creek Expressway would have begun at A1A at the Fort Lauderdale/ Pompano Beach border, and run along what is presently the eastern disjointed section of McNab Road. West of Old Dixie Highway, the road would have dipped south and run along present-day Cypress Creek Road (west of Florida's Turnpike it becomes McNab Road), until terminating at the proposed University-Deerfield Expressway.There was no projected interchange with Florida's Turnpike. It was to be 4 lanes for its entire length, and its total cost was slated at $22.6 million. There isn't much more to the story except that it was never built due to funding and opposition.

Rock Island Expressway

This freeway would have been built on Rock Island Road having its southern terminus at the Turnpike near Northwest 44th Street. The north terminus is unknown but most likely would have been Wiles Road or the University-Deerfield Expressway (now the Sawgrass Expressway) .

heridan Expressway

As its name implies, the Sheridan Expressway was a planned expressway along Sheridan Street . It would run from Old Dixie Highway in downtown Hollywood to the proposed University-Deerfield Expressway. It was one of four proposed east-west expressways across Broward County.

Sheridan Street existed as a surface street from A1A to points west, and was designated as SR 822. The plan was to reconstruct it to an expressway, beginning at Old Dixie Highway in downtown Hollywood to the proposed University Expressway in Cooper City, along the way passing through Hollywood and Pembroke Pines.

Sawgrass Expressway

Today there is a Sawgrass Expressway but originally it had a different route as the "University-Deerfield Expressway" , probably on University Drive (SR 817). Also, the freeway was originally supposed to continue east to I-95 . The Sawgrass Expressway is State Road 869 , but the designation continues on Southwest 10th Street east to US 1.

Palm Beach County

There were 3 expressways planned across Palm Beach County , 1 North-South expressway and 2 East-West expressways . They were never built , but the Florida Turnpike and I-95 pass through the county . Also, Southern Boulevard (SR 80) was recently converted into a partial expressway , The construction of the partial freeway is most likely not finished yet but almost . The SR 80 freeway is not going to be tolled .

References

*http://web.archive.org/web/20041204093336/www.southfloridaroads.com/cancelled.html

*The other reference got deleted , sorry .