HISTORY:
In 2016, the City of Miami Beach adopted its Transportation Master Plan. One of the projects recommended in the Adopted Transportation Master Plan Project Bank is an eastbound auxiliary right turn lane from SR112/Julia Tuttle Causeway/Arthur Godfrey/41st Street off-ramp to southbound SR 907/Alton Road. The project, as proposed in the Transportation Master Plan, is intended to serve as a "by-pass lane" for buses traveling eastbound on the Julia Tuttle Causeway to be able to quickly make a right turn and travel southbound onto Alton Road, and would also benefit all vehicular traffic making this movement. The concept entails reconstructing the existing eastbound shoulder of the Julia Tuttle Causeway off-ramp to Arthur Godfrey Road/41st Street and constructing a new lane to provide additional capacity for motorists who wish to turn right (south) onto Alton Road.
In addition, the auxiliary lane can serve as a bus by-pass lane for the proposed Beach Express North Bus Express Rapid Transit (BERT) service. Through the implementation of special signalization and transit signal priority technology on the buses, the BERT buses could potentially make a protected left turn from this auxiliary lane to by-pass traffic and access Mount Sinai Medical Campus.
It is worth highlighting that this intersection is under the jurisdiction of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and, as such, any modifications to the existing intersection configuration must be reviewed and approved by FDOT. As such, the Transportation Department staff is in discussions with FDOT to include this improvement as part of the I-195/Julia Tuttle Causeway inside shoulder work for the proposed Beach Express North BERT service.