At the Town Council's October 6, 2015 meeting, resolution 15-1330 was passed adopting 23 strategies to address transportation issues facing the Town. One of the strategies identified was to create two new east-west connections at NW 146th Street and NW 159th Street through the Palmetto Expressway to enhance connectivity within the Town and to alleviate traffic congestion on NW 154th Street.

Following the adoption of Resolution 15-1330, Town staff scheduled several meetings with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to discuss the potential of having these two connections included as part of the plans of the future SR 826/Palmetto Express Lanes project. During the coordination efforts, it was agreed that FDOT would elevate the Palmetto Expressway from north of NW 138th Street to bend of the C-8 Canal (near NW 163rd Street) to accommodate the underpasses, which is valued at $180 million and the Town would pay for the design and construction for the new roadways. Earlier this year, the Town entered into a Local Funding Agreement with for the roadway design of the Underpasses for $515,000.

Currently, the Town only has one main corridor, NW 154th Street that provides east-west connectivity. This corridor during peak hour periods is failing to meet the level of service standards set by the County and is experiencing heavy congestion. The creation of these two underpasses are vital to the Town, because they will assist with the distribution of traffic flow and provide three east-west connections within the Town, thus alleviating traffic on NW 154th Street and providing enhanced connectivity within the Town.

Last year, the Town worked with the Graham Companies to secure County Road Impact Fee funds through the Developer Contribution-in-lieu-of-fee process. This new process has allowed the Town to secure funding for two critical transportation projects the NW 67th Avenue Widening project and the NW 154th Street Adaptive Signalization project. In total the Town captured $663,000 between both projects. Although, this process has given the Town the opportunity to cover the cost of two projects, the process has its limitations. The contribution-in-lieu-of road impact fee credit can only be applied toward the parent tract of a development prior to the issuance of building permits and therefore, there are several developments in Miami Lakes, for which permits have already been issued and paid for, in which the Town cannot capture road impact fees for through this process.

Since 2016, there has been $5.5 million in road impact fees paid to the County from several developments in Miami Lakes. The Town has only been able to capture $663,000 of that money, leaving approximately $4.8 million left over.

The construction of the roadway for the Palmetto Underpasses is valued at $3.4 million. This project is a critical piece to the success of the Town's Transportation Plan. The passing of this resolution will urge the County to earmark road impact fee funds, which have been paid for by developments in Miami Lakes to be allocated toward the Palmetto Underpasses project.