Opa-locka West Airport

Opa-locka West Airport (FAA LID: X46) was a county-owned public airport located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of the central business district of Miami, a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It covered an area of 420 acres (170 ha) which contained two asphalt paved runways: 9/27 measuring 3,000 x 60 ft (914 x 18 m) and 18/36 measuring 3,000 x 60 ft (914 x 18 m).[1]

Opa-locka West Airport
(closed)
Aerial view of Opa-Locka West Airport in 1985
Summary
Airport typePublic
OwnerMiami-Dade Aviation Department (MDAD)
ServesMiami, Florida
LocationHialeah, Florida
Elevation AMSL8 ft / 2 m
Runways
Direction Length Surface
ft m
9/27 3,000 914 Asphalt
18/36 3,000 914 Asphalt

The airport opened in 1970 and was designed to relieve congestion at the nearby Opa-locka Airport. There was no public access to the airfield by land and it served as a remote area for touch-and-go training. Light twin-engine aircraft such as the Cessna 310 were the largest used at this airport. There were no storage facilities and no aircraft based at the airport. Expansion was limited due to the presence of wetlands. The airport had 12,100 general aviation aircraft operations in the year 2002.[2]

The airport was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. Miami-Dade County announced in June 2006 that the airport would be decommissioned. The county planned to use the land as a quarry, with an estimated yield of 47 million cubic feet (1,300,000 m3) of limestone worth between $500 million and $1.2 billion.[3][4]

Countyline Dragway, a one-eighth mile drag racing strip sanctioned by the International Hot Rod Association (IHRA), operated at the former airport site from January 2007 to May 2014. It was located at the intersection of U.S. Route 27 (Okeechobee Road) and Krome Avenue, just south of the Miami-Dade/Broward county line.[5][6]

References
  1. FAA Airport Form 5010 for X46 PDF, effective 2006-06-08
  2. "Opa-locka West Airport" (PDF). (842 KiB) brochure from CFASPP Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine (April 2005)
  3. Meg Godlewski (2006-06-09). "Florida's Opa-Locka West Airport to close". The Southern Aviator. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  4. "EAA Opposes Closing Opa-locka West Airport". Experimental Aircraft Association press release. 2006-05-24. Archived from the original on 2007-05-19.
  5. "Drag Racing Strip Opens at Former Airport Site". 2007-01-26. Archived from the original on 2007-12-11. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  6. Ted Hutton (2007-09-16). "Former street racers flock to old airport site to satisfy need for speed". South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
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