On October 8, a hearing was held to discuss the "Preferred Alternative" selected by the Florida Department of Transportation to upgrade our beloved Ives Dairy Road to accommodate the 100 trains per day that are anticipated to be going by each day in our not-too-distant future (which should come as no surprise to readers of this blog - see http://westofaventura.blogspot.com/2014/04/trains.html).
Here is what the FDOT has in mind:
The "Final Design Phase" won't conclude until 2017, and the Right of Way acquisition runs until 2018, so don't expect construction imminently, but the above representation could be how things look like in 5 years.
The winners in all this are Aventura (who was represented by it's mayor and city manager at the meeting), commuters and business in Aventura.
The losers are the businesses shaded in purple in the above graphic, who will have their land expropriated to construct the extension (no big loss, and I'm sure they will be happy to be "bought out").
The other losers are those of us WoA, because improving traffic flow on Ives Dairy further contributes to it becoming an urban highway through an area with 2 schools at NE 24th Avenue, and another 2 schools at NE 26th Avenue.
FDOT had also considered improvements at the NE 215th intersection with US1, but decided to take "NO ACTION" on that road, which separates Miami-Dade and Broward counties, and which has ZERO schools on it. Some action to connect NE 215th Street could have alleviated some of the tremendous pressure on Ives Dairy and the increasing danger to commuting students.
More information available at http://www.fdotmiamidade.com/ne203-215pde.html
If you'd like to submit on-the-record comments to the Project Director, you can drop her a line at fabiana.gonzalez@dot.state.fl.us
