 State Road 972 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coral Way | ||||
 SR 972 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained byFDOT | ||||
| Length | 4.164 mi[2] (6.701 km) Coral Way extends 16.3 miles (26.2 km) total[1] | |||
| Existed | 1922 (Coral Way) 1983 (as SR 972)–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end | Douglas Road inCoral Gables | |||
| East end |  US 1 inMiami | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Florida | |||
| Counties | Miami-Dade | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
Coral Way, co-signedState Road 972 (SR 972) betweenDouglas Road andUS 1 inMiami, is a 16.4-mile-long (26.4 km) primary east-west street that extends from Southwest 157th Avenue in westernMiami-Dade County toBrickell Avenue (US 1) in theBrickell neighborhood ofDowntown Miami,Florida.
Coral Way begins as SW 26th Street at Southwest 157th Avenue in unincorporated Miami-Dade County as a mix of a residential street and commercial street. Just west of theHomestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike, Coral Way curves slightly to the north, becoming SW 24th Street as it passes over the Turnpike without an interchange. It continues through unincorporated Miami-Dade County, intersecting withGalloway Road, interchanging withthe Palmetto Expressway, andLudlam Road, becoming mostly residential east of Ludlam Road. AtRed Road (Southwest 57th Avenue), Coral Way entersCoral Gables, becomes a two lane street, and begins a residential stretch of road in which Coral Way is covered under a naturalcanopy from each side of the road made of large oak,mahogany and otherhardwood trees. At South Greenway Drive/Anderson Road, it exits the canopy, with the trees still lining the street, and it borders the Granada Golf Course for two blocks before a traffic circle turns Coral Way into a one way westbound street for two blocks further, with eastbound traffic taking Segovia Street south to Biltmore Way to rejoin Coral Way at the intersection withLe Jeune Road (SW 42nd Avenue). For the next half mile, Coral Way is also known as theMiracle Mile, the major east–west road through downtown Coral Gables. The median resumes with large date palm trees and flower beds lining the center of the road. The Miracle Mile ends at Douglas Road, with Coral Way leaving Coral Gables and entering Miami, and is also the western terminus of State Road 972.[1]
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State Road 972 begins on the intersection between Coral Way/Southwest 22nd Street andDouglas Road (Southwest 37th Avenue) at theCoral Gables and Miami boundary, with SR 972 heading east into Miami. It runs as a 4-lane divided road with many oldficus andbanyan trees in itsmedian through a commercial area, passing by theMiracle Marketplace a few blocks east of the western terminus. It then intersectsSW 27th Avenue (SR 9), and continues straight east until an intersection with SW 3rd Avenue in the Five Points neighborhood, where Coral Way veers northeast, becoming SW 3rd Avenue, and intersects withSW 12th Avenue (SR 933), still as a commercial road. After crossing underI-95 and intersecting with SW 15th Road/Broadway just east of I-95, the historic scenic drive of Coral Way ends, as it curves back into a purely eastern direction and becomes an undivided four lane road known also as SW 13th Street, heading into the core of central Miami. Four blocks east of SW 15th Road and one block east ofMiami Avenue, where the road is known as SE 13th Street, SR 972 meet its eastern terminus ofU.S. Route 1 (Brickell Avenue) in the downtownMiami Financial District.[3]
The Coral Way Corridor was built in 1922, connecting the city ofMiami to Coral Gables withcitrus lined streets. A few years later streetcar tracks were laid down the middle. In 1929, a roadsidebeautification program was started and 1,200 non-native banyan trees were planted along it.[4]
In the years after the merger of Silver Bluff and Miami, Coral Way has been extended many times. Westward from SR 972, it now travels along Southwest 24th Street (Miracle Mile in eastern Coral Gables) until after passing overFlorida's Turnpike, rounding a gentle chicane, and following Southwest 26th Street until its current terminus just west of Southwest 162nd Avenue. Although the newer sections of Coral Way west of Coral Gables do not have the scenery or the history of the current SR 972, they form an extremely important commercial link forMiami-Dade County.
Coral Way was designated as State Road 956 in 1980[citation needed] and renumbered as State Road 972 in 1983. Originally, SR 972 extended 7.2 miles (11.6 km) further west along Southwest 24th Street to Southwest 107th Avenue (SR 985), nearTamiami Park andFlorida International University. A series of truncations started in the late 1990s, first moving the western terminus 2.0 miles (3.2 km) eastward toSR 973 (Galloway Road/Southwest 87th Avenue), then another 4.5 miles (7.2 km) toSR 953 (LeJeune Road) inCoral Gables – the exit signs on thePalmetto Expressway were replaced with ones without the State Road designation in 2001 – and, at the request of businesses along theMiracle Mile stretch of Coral Way, a final move of the western terminus one-half mile to its current location. Ironically, the final move re-established SR 972 on the original, pre-1926 configuration of Coral Way (many commercially prepared maps[which?] still show an intersection with LeJeune Road as the western terminus).
The entire route is inMiami-Dade County.
| Location | mi[2] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coral Gables–Miami line | 0.000 | 0.000 | Southwest 37th Avenue /Douglas Road | Western terminus Coral Way continues west as "Miracle Mile" | |
| Miami | 1.024 | 1.648 |  SR 9 (Southwest 27th Avenue / Unity Boulevard) –Coconut Grove | ||
| 2.534 | 4.078 |   SR 933 north (Southwest 12th Avenue) | |||
| 3.011 | 4.846 | Pioneers Road / Southwest 26th Road -Rickenbacker Causeway,Key Biscayne, Marine Labs, Parks & Beaches | |||
| 3.082 | 4.960 |     ToI-95 north /US 1 north / Southwest 25th Road / Mary Brickell Road | |||
| 4.164 | 6.701 | Brickell Avenue | Eastern terminus; formerUS 1 (SR 5) | ||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
