Florida State Road 944

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State Road 944, locally known as Hialeah Drive and Northwest 54th Street, is a 3.6-mile-long east-west street spanning Hialeah and Miami, Florida. The western terminus is an intersection with Okeechobee Road (US 27/SR 25) in Hialeah; its eastern terminus is an intersection with Biscayne Boulevard (U.S. Route 1/SR 5), 60 yards to the east of the historic northern terminus of SR 815 in Miami.

Along with the north-south Palm Avenue, Hialeah Drive is a baseline for addresses in the City of Hialeah (most of Miami-Dade County uses Flagler Street and Miami Avenue for its baseline). State Road 944 passes by suburban and urban communities, shopping centers, and light industry.

[edit] SR 25A: Miami's first bypass

The genesis of today's SR 944 began when FDOT extended US 27 southward from Tallahassee to Miami in 1949. While the "new" U.S. Highway was routed around Lake Okeechobee and southeastward to the Magic City along the recently-redesignated State Road 25 (the road was SR 26 prior to 1945), the Florida Department of Transportation added plans for three bypass routes of Miami: the north-south SR 27 (now SR 997 and SR 9336), the east-west SR 826 (which morphed into the Palmetto Expressway several years after its opening) and the east-west State Road 25A.

Because it was routed over previously-existing streets, SR 25A received its designation in 1950, well ahead of the other two planned bypasses; the configuration of the route has been unchanged since then. In a 1983 renumbering, the FDOT replaced the SR 25A designation with the street's new insignia: SR 944.