Florida State Road 989

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Locally known as Allapattah Road and Southwest 112th Avenue, State Road 989 is a north-south four line undivided highway in southern Miami-Dade County, Florida between Cutler Bay and Homestead Air Reserve Base. Its northern terminus is an intersection with South Dixie Highway U.S. Route 1/SR 5). According to Florida Department of Transportation maps and reports, its southern terminus is an interchange with the Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (SR 821), but according to posted signs and the Florida Highway Patrol, the southern terminus is an intersection with Moody Drive (Southwest 268th Street) - Moody Drive having been part of a longer configuration that the State Road had in the 1970s and the 1980s.

While the northern end of SR 989 passes by a major shopping center (Southland Mall, formerly known as Cutler Ridge Mall) and the northern two miles feature suburban housing, the majority of the road passes through a large rural area that is slowly losing its foliage plant nurseries, taro (elephant ear) farms, cornfields, and tomato farms.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

SR 909's definition in 1945

Since its initial designation (as SR 909) in the late 1950s, the configuration and importance of the State Road reflected the importance of Homestead Air Force Base. The original route extended southward to an intersection with Waldin Drive (Southwest 280th Street) to provide an eastern entrance to the base housing area as the base was being reconstructed after being seriously damaged by a 1945 hurricane (the base was deeded over to Dade County for eight years; the United States Department of Defense resumed control of the base in 1953 and started to rebuild it). [1]

By the late 1960s, the State Road was realigned to Moody Drive to provide increased access to the base's two northern entrance gates as the increasing intensity of the Cold War and the rise to power of Fidel Castro in nearby Cuba amplified the importance of Homestead Air Force Base to the national security of the United States. The eastern gate was closed and removed. At some point between the realignment and the mid 1970s the road was redesignated SR 989 (the old number was subsequently applied to West Dixie Highway in North Miami in 1983).

After the decline and fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the importance of Homestead Air Force Base had waned sufficiently enough to merit consideration for closure. While intervention of local politicians was enough to forestall any decision to close by the Base Closing Commission, hurricane Andrew damaged the base so severely in 1992 (it was 97% destroyed) that closure was inevitable. Ultimately, the airstrip was rehabilitated while the area immediately around it was transformed into Homestead Air Reserve Base, and the remaining Air Force Base grounds reverted to Dade County for development.

Since the advent of hurricane Andrew, SR 989 was truncated to the corner of Allapattah Road and Moody Drive (a handful of SR 989 signs remained on Moody Drive as late as 2002); afterwards - depending on the source - there may have been another truncation to the Turnpike.

In 1999, the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners accepted a proposal for extending a four-lane Allapattah Road southward to intersect with an extended four-lane Biscayne Drive (Southwest 288th Street), itself a former State Road. While the latter has since been resurfaced, there has been no further action on this matter as the developer of the area, Homestead Air Base Developers, Inc. (HABDI), was embroiled in a controversy that effectively killed the plan.