Canceled expressways in Florida


There have been plans in Florida for expressways, but some were never constructed due to financial problems, community opposition and environmental issues.

Southeast Florida

In the 1970s, most of South Florida's proposed new freeways were cancelled due to voters choosing to direct funding away from roads toward mass transit projects and the planned Miami Metrorail. Hialeah in particular is anti-freeway, as many proposals for freeways in the city have been cancelled due to community opposition.
In the 1970s, there were plans for several freeways in the Tampa Bay Area, but most were cancelled by 1982. The high cost of acquiring right of way in this densely populated area, as well as community opposition were the key factors in canceling most of these freeways. Instead, planners decided to widen existing roads.
In St. Lucie County, the Palmer Expressway, a Turnpike project, would have extended approximately from County Road 709 east to U.S. Route 1. It would have run along the northern edge of Port St. Lucie, intersecting U.S. Route 1 just south of Saeger Avenue. The expressway would have essentially run a parallel course on the northern side of the power lines coming from the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant on Hutchinson Island. Instead, Crosstown Parkway, linking Interstate 95 with U.S. Route 1 along the former Juliet Avenue/West Virginia Avenue corridor, was built to serve much the same purpose, although in a limited capacity. The parkway also has the distinction of Florida's first superstreet intersection with Floresta Drive.
The Northern Extension of Florida's Turnpike was proposed to continue the Turnpike northwest for to U.S. Route 19 at Lebanon Station. Later proposals have routed it farther south to avoid the Goethe State Forest.
In Tallahassee, it was proposed in the 1970s for interstate highway funding to be used to create an east–west expressway. The proposed route included an abandoned railroad corridor running southeast from Tennessee Street and Ocala Road to Stadium Drive, then east through the Gaines Street corridor. Another version of the plan routed along Jackson Bluff Road. There was no strong local support for construction of this expressway, and the plan was abandoned. In 1986 Tallahassee prided itself on being the largest city in the United States with no expressway within the city limits, although due to annexation of land north of I-10 this is no longer true.

Red Hills Coastal Parkway

The Red Hills Coastal Parkway was a proposed $500 million toll road in the Florida Panhandle that would have provided an eastern bypass of Tallahassee from US 98 in eastern Wakulla County to US 319 in northern Leon County. In June 2007, the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency, the local metropolitan planning organization, voted unanimously to remove it from their project list, effectively killing the road.
The Red Hills Coastal Parkway was planned in 2005 by the Capital Region Transportation Planning Agency as part of the CRPTA's 2030 Plan as a hurricane evacuation route as well as an eastern bypass of Tallahassee. The Red Hills Coastal Parkway would have been a four-lane toll road linking US 98, near St. Marks, Florida, with Interstate 10 in Leon County, by cutting through rural Wakulla County and rural and suburban portions of eastern Leon County, eventually connecting with US 319, north of Lawton Chiles High School in Bradfordville and within the Red Hills Region.
Opposition to the proposed toll road was put forth by residents of the Red Hills with the support of scientific evidence by Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy, The Florida Wildlife Federation, and 1000 Friends of Florida. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Department of Transportation, and the Northwest Florida Water Management District said the need for such a project had not been established.
In March 2007, a public meeting of the CRTPA was held and federal agency's review identified numerous problems including potentially adverse impacts to the Wakulla River and St. Marks River, groundwater, springs, sinkholes, wetlands, forests, and wildlife. Other problems arose such as the proximity to the unincorporated area of Chaires, Florida and urban sprawl in rural Wakulla and Leon Counties.