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This image shows the original plan for the 14-mile Kendall Parkway, which would have extended the 836 Expressway into Southwest Miami-Dade. The red arrow depicts the approximate endpoint of a four-mile 836 extension as approved by the Greater Miami Expressway Agency on June 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Illustration by Douglas Hanks<\/p>\n
dhanks@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
A state toll board on Thursday officially killed the stalled plans for the Kendall Parkway<\/a>, a 14-mile extension of the 836 Expressway into Southwest Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could sit around and continue to say we\u2019re going to build this highway out to Kendall, and it\u2019s going to fix the world. Or we could be fiscally responsible, and be honest with the community,\u201d Rodolfo Pages, a board member of the Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX), said after the unanimous vote to scrap the Kendall Parkway plan in favor of extending the 836 just four miles to Southwest Eighth Street. \u201cIn our lifetime,\u201d Pages said of the Kendall Parkway plan, \u201cwe will never be able to build that highway.\u201d<\/p>\n While GMX says the planned Kendall Parkway would cost $3 billion to develop, the new plan for an elevated four-mile 836 extension is expected to cost about $1.5 billion. That would take the expressway \u2014 formally known as State Road 836 and commonly called the Dolphin \u2014 to where Eighth Street meets Southwest 157th Avenue. The elevated portion was always going to be the most expensive part of the project, with the bulk of the Kendall Parkway south of Eighth Street planned to be at street level.<\/p>\n The vote marks the most significant change yet from Miami-Dade County losing control of the toll board that runs the 836 and four other toll roads: the Airport, Don Shula, Snapper Creek and Gratigny expressways.<\/p>\n While the previous board \u2014 then called the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority \u2014 approved the 14-mile extension of the 836 as a way to speed commuting times to and from Kendall, that panel was ousted in 2023 during a legal fight with Tallahassee<\/a>. The Florida Legislature passed a law in 2019 authorizing a state-controlled board to take over Miami-Dade\u2019s expressway system, and the new agency \u2014 known as GMX \u2014 is governed by a majority of board members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/p>\n