Florida State Road 990

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A three-mile-long east-west road in Florida, State Road 990 currently extends from an interchange between the Don Shula Expressway (SR 874) and Southwest 107th Avenue (SR 985) to South Dixie Highway ( U.S. Route 1/SR 5). Locally known as Southwest 104th Street, Killian Parkway, Killian Drive, and Southwest 112th Street, the street provides access between Miami-Dade College – Kendall Campus and the communities along the US highway (Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay). Between the termini, SR 990 is exclusively within suburban housing developments, with the section on Killian Drive (Southwest 112th Street) much more wooded than the other part. This two-lane eastern stretch has been designated a historic drive by the legislature of the State of Florida (the rest of SR 990 is four lane highway).

When the State Road signs were erected in 1982, they lined a route thrice as long as the current alignment and identified it as State Road 936. Originally, the western terminus was an intersection of Southwest 104th Street and Southwest 137th Avenue (SR 825) in Kendall (although some commercial maps from as recent as 2004 incorrectly show SR 990 extending two miles further to the west, to Southwest 157th Avenue near the Hammocks) and the eastern terminus was an intersection with Red Road/Southwest 57th Avenue (then SR 959) in Pinecrest, at the parking lot of the original Parrot Jungle and Gardens (now Pinecrest Gardens Park). The western end was truncated to SR 985 by 1990; about four years later, the SR 936 signs were replaced with SR 990 signs; by the end of the decade, the SR 990 signs were removed from Killian Drive east of South Dixie Highway (US 1), about the same time the Florida Department of Transportation deleted the part of SR 959 south of Dixie Highway as well.

In the 1950s, Kendall was being developed with different “boundaries” than being used by the community today. Signs indicating its original northern boundary – “North Kendall Drive,” Southwest 88th Street (SR 94) – are still being used as street identifiers (although they are gradually being replaced by “Kendall Drive” signs), while signs identifying the southern edge of Kendall – “South Kendall Drive,” Southwest 104th Street – have long since disappeared.

More information on the origins of Killian Drive and the State of Florida Historic Roadway designation may be found at the community website: Killian Drive Historical Society.