Golden Glades Interchange
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The Golden Glades Interchange, located in Miami Gardens, Florida, USA, is the confluence of five major roads serving eastern and southern Florida: Florida's Turnpike Mainline (hidden Florida DOT designation SR 91), Interstate 95 (hidden designations SR 9 north of it and SR 9A south of it), U.S. Route 441 (hidden designation SR 7), the Palmetto Expressway (signed SR 826), and SR 9 (which branches southward off of I-95 and becomes a major commercial road on its own accord). Since its opening in 1964, it has had added to it flyovers to a commuter train station and bus terminal (in the 1970s) and elevated HOV lanes (in 1995) to accommodate the growing regional population, which has more than doubled since the interchange's opening.
The construction of the Golden Glades Interchange was prompted by a sequence of events spanning 12 years.
- In 1950, US 441 was extended from downtown Orlando to Miami to connect with a stretch of US 41 (SR 90) which sported U.S. Route 94 road signs just a year earlier.
- In 1957, Florida's Turnpike (then called the Sunshine State Parkway) was completed in Dade (later Miami-Dade) County, joining SR 826 (which, at the time was Golden Glades Drive, an east-west street connecting U.S. Route 1 along Biscayne Bay to US 27 inland).
- In 1958, construction of the north-south section of the Palmetto Bypass Expressway started. It was designed to connect with SR 826 with a 90 degree eastward curve (the western section of SR 826 was to be abandoned).
- In 1959, construction of a segment of I-95, from Northwest 20th Street in Miami to SR 84 in Fort Lauderdale was started, along with I-195 and the Airport Expressway (SR 112) for access to Miami Beach and Miami International Airport.
- In 1961, construction of the Palmetto Bypass Expressway (the name was unofficially shortened in the mid 1960s, the Airport Expressway (then called the 36th Street Tollway), and the segment of I-95 south of Northwest 95th Street in Dade County were completed.
Anticipating increasing traffic to and from Dade County, FDOT broke ground on May 18, 1962 for the new Golden Glades Interchange. The section of Interstate 95 from Golden Glades to SR 84 was completed in 1963; the Golden Glades Interchange and I-95 south to Northwest 95th Street opened the following year (the extreme southern end of I-95, serving downtown Miami, wasn't completed until 1969, along with the opening of SR 836 and Interstate 395).
