  | |
|---|---|
| West 57th Avenue | |
 Red Road inCoral Gables, 1921 | |
| Maintained by | FDOT |
| Length | 20.6 mi (33.2 km)[1] Two non-contiguous segments interrupted byMiami International Airport |
| Location | Miami-Dade,Broward |
| South end | South 136th Street / Howard Drive inCoral Gables |
| North end |  SR 823 inMiramar |
| Construction | |
| Inauguration | 1921 (1921) |
Red Road, also known asWest 57th Avenue, is a 20.6-mile (33.2 km) main north-south street running west ofdowntownMiami inMiami-Dade County,Florida and intoBroward County. Red Road is signed asState Road 959 fromU.S. 1 to the south end of the Miami International Airport, andState Road 823 fromU.S. 27 to the Broward County line.
The southern terminus is at South 136th Street (Howard Drive) in Gables by the Sea, with the incorporated village ofPinecrest to the northwest corner and the city ofCoral Gables to the east and south. Red Road goes north through a residential area until it dead ends at Campamento Avenue inCoral Gables. It resumes just south ofOld Cutler Road at the Gulliver Academy campus' west end. Red Road and Old Cutler Road are cosigned as they head north for a short distance until Old Cutler Road veers east.
Red Road continues north, skirting the east side of Pinecrest as West 57th Avenue, roughly dividing it from Coral Gables until it crossesKendall Drive (South 88th Street/SR 94) where it divides the city ofSouth Miami to the west from a plot of unincorporatedMiami-Dade County to the east.[2]
North ofSunset Drive (South 72nd Street/SR 986) it divides the city ofSouth Miami from Coral Gables.
State Road 959 begins at the intersection with Red Road andUS 1 (South Dixie Highway), with SR 959 heading north, going through the southwestern end of theUniversity of Miami campus, and then through residential areas, as it acts as the dividing line between Coral Gables to its east andSouth Miami and patches of unincorporated Miami-Dade County to the west between US 1 andSR 976 (Bird Road).[3] North of Bird Road, Red Road continues through the residential sections of Coral Gables, and enters the residential areas of West Miami, crossingUS 41 (Tamiami Trail). SR 959 then enters Miami, intersectingSR 968 (Flagler Street). North of NW 5th Street, Red Road becomes more commercial as it approaches the airport area, with a major shopping center and hotel at the intersection with NW 7th Street. SR 959 then crosses a canal and has an interchange with theDolphin Expressway (SR 836), with the road terminating just north of the interchange at a dead end intersection with North 12th Street/Perimeter Road, just south of theMiami International Airport runway. This is also the end of the southern segment of Red Road.[4]
The road continues on the north side of Miami International Airport at North 36th Street and runs through the city ofMiami Springs as Curtiss Parkway, their main north-south road, until it ends at Hunting Lodge Drive where Curtiss Parkway curves northeast.
At the northside of theMiami Canal atOkeechobee Road (US 27), Red Road resumes and runs through the city ofHialeah as their West 4th Avenue and signed as SR 823. It exits Hialeah when it crosses West 84th Street (Hialeah grid) or North 135th Street (Miami-Dade County grid) and again becomes Northwest 57th Avenue.
It continues north dividing the incorporated town ofMiami Lakes to the west fromOpa-locka Airport and the city ofMiami Gardens to the east until it crosses thePalmetto Expressway (SR 826) where it continues to run north through unincorporated Miami-Dade County.
North of North 202nd Street (Honey Hill Drive) it divides Broward County and the city ofMiramar to the west with unincorporated Miami-Dade County to the east, until it fully enters Broward County and Miramar just south of theHomestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (State Road 821).[5]
It continues north into Broward County and Miramar for a short distance, curving northwest starting at the intersection with Miramar Parkway, and merges onto Flamingo Road.
WhenGeorge Merrick made plans for the layout of Coral Gables in the 1920s he intended Red Road to be the western boundary of hisplanned city. The east–westCoral Way (SR 972), the northeast-southwest South Dixie Highway (soon to be designatedUS 1), and the north–south Ponce de Leon Boulevard were intended to be main throughways, and theTamiami Trail (soon to be part ofUS 94, which would in turn be folded intoUS 41 in 1949) was planned to be the northern boundary.
Red Road gets its name from the color of the mark Merrick made when he drew the road on his planning map; similarly, an east–west street was drawn in with a blue pencil and was named Blue Road.
The section of Red Road between Killian Drive and the Miami International Airport received itsFDOT of SR 959 designation in 1980. Its original configuration was 2.7-mile (4.3 km) longer as it stretched southward to the intersection of Red Road and Southwest 111th Street (Killian Drive), where it met the eastern end ofSR 990 just outside the parking lot of the originalParrot Jungle, a major tourist attraction. Between 1995 and 2001, FDOT truncated several State Roads inMiami-Dade County, and both SR 959 and SR 990 were cut back to terminate at US 1.
| County | Location | mi[6][7][8][9] | km | Destinations | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miami-Dade | Coral Gables | 0.000 | 0.000 | Old Cutler Road | |||
| 0.887 | 1.427 | Killian Parkway | Southwest 112th Street; former SR 990 | ||||
| 2.420 | 3.895 | Kendall Drive | Southwest 88th Street; former SR 94 | ||||
| South Miami–Coral Gables line | 3.440 | 5.536 | Sunset Drive | Southwest 72nd street; former SR 986 | |||
| 3.657 | 5.885 |  US 1 (Dixie Highway) | |||||
| Bird Road–Coral Gables line | 5.480 | 8.819 |  SR 976 (Bird Road) | Southwest 40th Street | |||
| 6.480 | 10.429 | Coral Way | Southwest 24th Street; former SR 972 | ||||
| West Miami | 7.524 | 12.109 |  US 41 (Southwest 8th Street) | Tamiami Trail | |||
| Miami | 8.028 | 12.920 |  SR 968 (Flagler Street) | ||||
| | 8.916– 8.991 | 14.349– 14.470 |         SR 836 toI-95 /SR 826 /Florida's Turnpike Extension –Airport | ||||
| | 9.047 | 14.560 | Perimeter Road | Northern terminus of SR 959 | |||
| Gap in route | |||||||
| Hialeah | 0.000 | 0.000 |  US 27 (Okeechobee Road) | Southern terminus of SR 823 | |||
| 0.758 | 1.220 |  SR 934 (Hialeah Expressway) | West 21st Street (Northwest 74th Street) | ||||
| Palm Springs | 2.540 | 4.088 |  SR 932 (West 49th Street) | Northwest 103rd Street | |||
| Miami Lakes | 4.483– 4.645 | 7.215– 7.475 |   SR 924 toI-75 /SR 826 | ||||
| 4.754 | 7.651 |  SR 916 (West 84th Street) | Northwest 135th Street | ||||
| 6.566– 6.611 | 10.567– 10.639 | SR 826 toFlorida's Turnpike –Airport | Interchange via Northwest 167th Street | ||||
| 7.569 | 12.181 |  SR 860 (Miami Gardens Drive) | Northwest 183rd Street | ||||
| 8.780 | 14.130 | Honey Hill Drive (CR 854 east) | Northwest 202nd Street; former western terminus of SR 854 | ||||
| Broward | Miramar | 9.604– 9.894 | 15.456– 15.923 | Florida's Turnpike Extension –Homestead,Orlando | Exit 43 on Turnpike Extension | ||
| 10.260 | 16.512 | Miramar Parkway (CR 858 east) | ToSR 858 | ||||
| 11.697 | 18.824 |  SR 823 north (Flamingo Road) | Northern terminus of Red Road | ||||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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