The only part of the road that is state maintained is South 26th Road; Miami-Dade County maintains the Rickenbacker Causeway across the Biscayne Bay and Virginia Key to Key Biscayne.[3] Inside the village of Key Biscayne, the roadway is known as Crandon Boulevard after it crosses Bear Cut.[4]Mile markers are posted along the entire route, with zero at the entrance to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park at the south end of Crandon Boulevard.
Route description
Crandon Boulevard starts at the entrance to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, and serves as a main artery for the village of Key Biscayne. North of the village, the road cuts through Crandon Park, passing by Crandon Beach and the Tennis Center at Crandon Park before it crosses Bear Cut onto Virginia Key, where the road becomes three lanes wide. Bear Cut also marks the southern terminus of the Rickenbacker Causeway and northern terminus of Crandon Boulevard.
Toll on the Rickenbacker Causeway for southbound automobiles is $3.00 for drivers without a Sunpass and $2.25 for drivers with a Sunpass; northbound vehicles do not stop to pay toll.
History
Originally, there was no State Road connection between I-95 and Key Biscayne when the Interstate highway was opened in 1967. The southernmost exit of the expressway was a short "trunk ramp" forming the southwestern end of Southwest 23rd Road at Southwest First Avenue (with the ramps having an at-grade crossing with Florida East Coast Railroad tracks before reaching First Avenue). Southbound traffic for the Miami Seaquarium, beaches, and other tourist attractions along the Rickenbacker Causeway would exit at Southwest 23rd Road, then take Southwest First Avenue to Southwest 25th Road, which would lead (via Brickell Avenue) to the toll booths on the entrance of the Causeway.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the railroad tracks were removed and houses along Southwest First Avenue between Southwest 15th Road and Southwest 12th Avenue were demolished to make room for Metrorail. The removal of this section of Southwest First Avenue resulted in a temporary lack of access of the Rickenbacker Causeway to southbound I-95 motorists (briefly, they were guided to it by way of Southwest Eighth Street (US 41-SR 90) and Brickell Avenue (US 1-SR 5). Ultimately (in the early 1980s), a new partial interchange was built for southbound I-95, this time at Southwest 25th and 26th Roads. This became the primary mode of access to Key Biscayne from the expressway.
On the other hand, motorists leaving the Rickenbacker Causeway has had direct access with northbound I-95 and southbound US 1 (Brickell Avenue) with flyover ramps since 1967.
In the mid-1980s, newly built sections Southwest and Southeast 26th Road, plus the two flyover ramps, were designated an unsigned State Road 913 and maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation as a state highway.[6][7][8][9] FDOT now inventories the causeway and Crandon Boulevard as County Road 913.[2]
