State Road 112 (Florida)
Florida State Road 112 is an east-west
toll expressway connecting
Miami Beach and
Miami International Airport,
USA. Between the airport and
Interstate 95 (SR 9A), it is known as the
Airport Expressway and the Robert Frost Expressway; between I-95 and Alton Road (
SR 907A) in Miami Beach, the SR 112 designation is hidden as
Interstate 195 crosses
Biscayne Bay on the
Julia Tuttle Causeway. Between I-195 and its eastern terminus at Collins Avenue (
SR A1A), the SR 112 signs are present but infrequent.
The Airport Expressway is maintained by the
Miami-Dade Expressway Authority. Eastbound automobile traffic pay a $1.25 toll at the booths near Northwest 27th Avenue (
SR 9) midway between the airport and the Interstate highways (the westbound toll booths were removed in March 1984).
Construction of SR 112 began in 1959, and the expressway was opened to traffic in December 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 didn't reach the air terminals but instead had its western terminus at nearby, congested, LeJeune Road (
SR 953), Northwest 36th Street (
SR 948), and Okeechobee Road (
US 27/
SR 25). In 1990, SR 112 was extended southward and westward onto the airport property -- the two ramps are noted for a pair of oddities for expressways in the United States:
* They have an at-grade railroad crossing near the eastern end of one of the airport's runways, and
* There is a stretch (including the railroad crossing) over which the carriageways are reversed, in which the traffic appears to be driven on the left side of the expressway.
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 have failed, the
Florida Department of Transportation is constructing a connector between the
Dolphin Expressway and the Airport Expressway as part of a massive project (the
Miami Intermodal Center) 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.
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.
Shunpiking commonly takes place around the single $1.25 toll located in between the NW 22nd Ave and NW 39th St exits on the eastbound side. One simply exits at NW 22nd St, proceeds along city streets and re-enters a few minutes later at NW 39th St. This method is often faster than waiting in line to pay the toll during busy periods. SR-112 features signs from the
Miami-Dade Expressway Authority reminding motorists that tolls pay for highway improvements, however the effectiveness of these signs is subject to debate.
On
December 23,
1961, three signed roads along the route of SR 112 were opened: the 36th Street Tollway (now the Airport Expressway), Interstate 195, and SPUR Interstate 195. SPUR Interstate 195 was the surface portion of the east-west state route along Arthur Godfrey Boulevard in
Miami Beach, connecting I-195 and SR A1A. The SPUR I-195 signs disappeared from the road shortly after the designation was decommissioned by the newly formed
United States Department of Transportation in the late
1960s.
