A bid to cut driving time from West Kendall to downtown Miami by adding 14 miles to SR 836 is motoring ahead as 467 of the needed 919 acres of right of way for the Dolphin Expressway extension, also known as Kendall Parkway, have been acquired.

The new multimodal transportation link from the end of the Dolphin Expressway to Southwest 136th Street is being developed by the Greater Miami Expressway Agency, which unveiled details of the plans and status of the long-awaited project in a workshop last week.

Aside from an extension of the Dolphin Expressway, the project would incorporate improved adjacent roads, two transit stations with park-and-ride lots, a multi-use recreational trail and the potential for express buses, the workshop was told.

As part of the project’s avoidance and minimization efforts, it would be elevated over the Tamiami Canal impoundment and Pennsuco wetlands, outside of the 10-day travel time contour of the west Wellfield Protection Area, away from the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) half-mile buffer, and have the alignment option furthest away from existing homes.

It would have three lanes in each direction, primarily at ground level, with small span bridges at cross streets, farm crossings and wildlife crossings from the Dolphin Expressway to Southwest 88th Street.

The elevated structure, or viaduct, would parallel and cross Southwest Eighth Street for two miles. From Southwest 88th Street to Southwest 136th Street, two lanes would go in each direction, primarily at ground level.

The expressway agency is currently acquiring right of way, investigating geotechnical and environmental issues for the site, refining the concept and working on permitting, the workshop was told.

Of the 467 acres that have been purchased to date through a land acquisition program, 140 are within the CERP half-mile boundary. A total of 919 total acres are needed, and at least 1,000 wetland acres within the North Trail or Bird Drive Wetland Basins will be preserved, according to the presentation.

The Greater Miami Expressway Agency was long stalled in the project. It got going after Miami-Dade County pulled out of a legal war over control of the five tollways that are now under the agency’s wing. County commissioners voted unanimously last February to exit the fight.

“This is important for many, many, many reasons,” said commission Chairman Anthony Rodriguez at the time, “for my constituency and those that live out west, specifically for the parkway extension that has been on hold for way too long.”

Kendall Parkway plans ground to a halt after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law in July 2019 to abolish the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority and replace it with Greater Miami Expressway Agency. At the time, the price placed on extension from the western end of the Dolphin Expressway, 836, to West Kendall stood at $1 billion, a cost that surely has soared with materials and labor escalations.

Construction time for the parkway was estimated in 2019 at about five years. No newer estimates have been reported, nor has a start date.