Its main use is as a bypass around the western side of Miami, linking the routes that run southwest, west and northwest from that city.

Past here, the road enters woodland and is relatively uninterrupted for the next 5 miles (8.0 km), save for the Conrad Yelvington facility,[5] reaching the Tamiami Trail (US 41) at its northern end.

After passing the Miccosukee Indian casino and resort, SR 997 has an uninterrupted run north along the boundary of the Everglades, turning northeast after 9 miles (14 km).

In later decades, motorists confused Krome Avenue for Okeechobee Road, which carried the similarly numbered U.S. Route 27 since 1949.

The part north of Florida City became State Road 997, which was extended south past the turnoff for the Everglades to merge with U.S. Route 1.

The part southwest from Florida City became State Road 9336, and at some point it was extended east two blocks past SR 997 to US 1.

Since the late 1960s, plans to incorporate the southern portion of Krome Avenue into Miami-Dade County's system of expressways have been repeatedly announced and killed.

[15][16] Disapproval has arisen from Redland and Homestead, as the people living in those areas express their fear of increasing traffic changing the rural character of their neighborhoods.

This will change the nature of the road from a rural bypass route to a third outer loop or "beltway" of Miami after the Palmetto Expressway and the HEFT amid a burgeoning population and increasing traffic congestion, possibly putting pressure on the county Urban Development Boundary, which protects against westward encroachment into the Everglades.