Florida State Road 953
| North end |  SR 916 in Opa-locka | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Florida | |||
| Counties | Miami-Dade | |||
| Highway system | ||||
| ||||
State Road 953 (SR 953), locally known as Le Jeune Road (pronounced "Luh-JOO-n"), is a 11.735 miles (18.886 km) long north–south street in
Route description
Le Jeune Road proper begins at a traffic circle with
SR 953 heads north from US 1 as a four-lane road through residential areas, the eastern end of
At Zamora Avenue, Le Jeune Road divides Coral Gables to the west with unincorporated Miami-Dade County to the east, and enters unincorporated Miami-Dade County just one block north at Mendoza Avenue, becoming purely a residential street again. At Southwest 8th Street (
Le Jeune continues north through Miami, remaining a residential street for six blocks before becoming a commercial road. It continues north through Miami as a commercial street until an interchange with the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836), where the road becomes a divider between the International Links Miami-Melreese golf course to the east and a parking lot to the west. It reenters unincorporated Miami-Dade County after crossing the Tamiami Canal just south of the entrance to Miami International Airport and its interchange with the southern terminus of the Airport Expressway (SR 112). Between SR 953's entrance of the airport and the next major interchange north, State Road 948, it creates the eastern boundary of the airport, with airport related business to the east of LeJeune Road.[2][3]
Just two blocks north of SR 948, SR 953 crosses canal C-6 and crosses US 27 (
North of SR 916, Le Jeune Road continues for 0.6 miles (0.97 km), towards a dead-end inside
History
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2019) |
According to Joaquin Roy, a highly regarded professor from the University of Miami in his 1989 book "The Streets of Coral Gables"; Le Jeune Road was named after Charles Le Jeune (b. 1878, Belgium) who came to Florida around 1900 and acquired 140 acres (57 ha) of coral rock land on which he used dynamite to create tillable soil, and then cultivated orange, grapefruit and lime groves. The road that was the boundary of his property became known as Le Jeune Road. In 1914, Charles Le Jeune sold his groves to (George) Merrick, developer of Coral Gables, Florida, for $1,700,000. It runs adjacent to the east side and crosses the original entrance/exit to Miami International Airport.
At one point during the 1960s, the entire route was to be upgraded to freeway status, but the plans were cancelled. Several attempts to upgrade LeJeune Road around Miami International Airport have been proposed, with all of them failing.
Prior to 1983, Le Jeune Road was signed as State Road 913 south of North 103rd Street (SR 932); a designation now being applied to the Rickenbacker Causeway approach.
Major intersections
The entire route is in Miami-Dade County.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coral Gables | 0.000 | 0.000 |  US 1 (Dixie Highway) / Le Jeune Road south | No left turn from either direction of Le Jeune Road | |
| 0.569 | 0.916 |  SR 976 (Bird Road ) | Southwest 40th Street | ||
| 1.575 | 2.535 | Coral Way | Southwest 22nd Street; former SR 972 | ||
Miami | 2.617 | 4.212 |  US 41 (Southwest 8th Street) | Tamiami Trail | |
| 3.117 | 5.016 |  SR 968 (Flagler Street ) | |||
| 4.06 | 6.53 |  Downtown Miami | |||
| 4.118 | 6.627 |  SR 960 (Northwest 14th Street) | |||
Miami–Miami Springs line | 4.71 | 7.58 |  Northwest 21st Street – Miami International Airport | Interchange; no northbound access to eastbound 21st Street | |
| 4.968 | 7.995 | Northwest 25th Street – Rental Car Center | |||
| Miami Springs | 5.57 | 8.96 | South River Drive | Northbound exit only | |
    SR 112 east to I-95 – Miami Beach | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||||
| 5.658 | 9.106 |     | Northwest 36th Street | ||
At-grade intersection except northbound flyover to US 27 north | |||||
| 6.679 | 10.749 |  Hialeah Drive) to I-95 | Northwest 54th Street | ||
| 8.196 | 13.190 |  SR 934 (East 25th Street) to I-95 | Northwest 79th Street | ||
| 9.722 | 15.646 |  SR 932 (East 49th Street) | Northwest 103rd Street | ||
| 10.492 | 16.885 |  Le Jeune/Douglas Connector north to SR 924 | Northbound exit and southbound entrance | ||
SR 924 | Northwest 119th Street | ||||
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport | |||||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
References
- ^ a b FDOT straight line diagrams Archived 2014-03-06 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 2014
- ^ a b c Google (January 7, 2019). "State Road 953" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- ^ a b c General Highway Map Miami-Dade County, Florida (PDF) (Map). Florida Department of Transportation. April 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
