State Road 944 (SR 944), locally known as Hialeah Drive and North 54th Street, is a east–west street spanning

Hialeah Hialeah ( ; ) is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. With a population of 223,109 as of the 2020 census, Hialeah is the sixth-largest city in Florida. It is the second largest city by population in the Miami metropolitan area, whi ...

and

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. The western terminus is an intersection with Okeechobee Road (

US 27 U.S. Route 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at U.S. Route 1 in Florida, US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 in India ...

/ SR 25) in Hialeah; its eastern terminus is an intersection with Biscayne Boulevard (

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

/ SR 5). Along with the north–south Palm Avenue, Hialeah Drive is a baseline for addresses in the City of Hialeah (most of Miami-Dade County uses Flagler Street and Miami Avenue for its baselines).

Route description

SR 944 begins at an intersection with

/ SR 25 in

, heading east as four-lane undivided Northwest 54th Street/Hialeah Drive. The road passes through commercial areas before heading through a mix of suburban homes and businesses, becoming a

divided highway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

at the intersection with East 6th Avenue. The state road crosses SR 953 and passes more residences and businesses, with the median becoming a

center left-turn lane A reversible lane (British English: tidal flow) is a lane in which traffic may travel in either direction, depending on certain conditions. Typically, it is meant to improve traffic flow during rush hours, by having overhead traffic lights and li ...

. SR 944 enters industrial areas and crosses a

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

railroad line that also carries

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

and

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail line linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Tri-Rail ...

. At the intersection with Northwest 36th Avenue, the state road enters

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

and becomes Northwest 54th Street, passing through urban residential and commercial areas. The road intersects SR 9, at which point it passes under

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

's Green Line. Past this intersection, SR 944 passes through more developed areas as a four-lane undivided road. Farther east, the state road reaches a junction with US 441/ SR 7. A short distance later, SR 944 passes under

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

/SR 9A without an interchange. The road continues east past more urban homes and businesses, becoming Northeast 54th Street at the intersection with North Miami Avenue. SR 944 crosses the Florida East Coast Railway before coming to its eastern terminus at

US 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making ...

/ SR 5 (

Biscayne Boulevard U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) in Florida runs along the state's east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River into Georgia north of Boulogne and south of Folkston. US 1 was designated through Florida when the U.S. Numbe ...

History

The genesis of today's SR 944 began when FDOT extended US 27 southward from

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

to Miami in 1949. While the "new" U.S. Highway was routed around

Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwa ...

and southeastward to Miami along the recently redesignated State Road 25 (the road was SR 26 prior to 1945), the

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of t ...

added plans for three

bypass route A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety. A bypass spe ...

s of Miami: the north–south SR 27 (now SR 997 and SR 9336), the east–west SR 826 (which morphed into the Palmetto Expressway several years after its opening), and the east–west State Road 25A. Because it was routed over previously existing streets, SR 25A received its designation in 1950, well ahead of the other two planned bypasses; the configuration of the route has been unchanged since then. In a 1983 renumbering, the FDOT replaced the SR 25A designation with SR 944, the street's new insignia.

Major intersections

References

External links

Florida Route Log (SR 944)
{{Hialeah

944 Year 944 (Roman numerals, CMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine wars, Arab–Byzantine War: Byzantine forces are de ...

Hialeah, Florida 1950 establishments in Florida