Photo: Spider-Like Arch Of Signature Bridge Now Rising

·103 Comments

A new photo by Phillip Pessar shows one of the Signature Bridge arches rising out of the ground:

(photo: Phillip Pessar)

 

Each segment will be a precast installation, except for the final segment (seen in purple) poured in place. Temporary towers will support the structure during the work:

(image: FDOT)

 

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Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

In the meantime, the City should begin planning a massive modern redesign of the underdeck, just like this one, but under I95 along the beautifully developing river downtown; and renovate Jose Martí Park, connecting Brickell to East Little Havana / Riverside.

If the City needs funding it can team up with local residences to get the DDA expanded toJose Martí Park or create a new CRA zone for greater Brickell. I’d be happy to support this or whatever we need to do to promote this type of project.

38
Anonymous
10 months ago

What’s wrong with Jose Marti park?

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Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Current Issues at Jose Martí Park:

— Huge dumpsters
— Homeless encampment
— Rusted rundown fencing
— Inconvenient pathways
— Underutilized acres of land
— Lack of security
— Sketchy unnecessary parking spots,

Proposed Improvements: (**this is just a start, not all of it has to be done at once, but it should be planned initially to avoid later problems.)

– Interesting bike and running paths

– local and lush landscaping with a mix of palms, shrubs, flowers, and shaded vegetation

– paths for walking tours with historic statutes or ground plaques honoring Mary Brickell Jose Martí and other historical figures, and Miamis historical development and local agencies.

– 24/7 Manned Security Kiosk with lit Emergency call posts like they have around Coral Gables.

– fresh paint on under deck infrastructure with modern murals or just clean simple colors or texture to make it look inviting and less industrial.

– modern designed benches along the water for people to relax.

– open air gym bars like on Miami Beach.

– modern sculpture garden under I95 where tourists can take photographs with the historic monolithic bridge as a backdrop

– A mini shuttle that brings people in from other parts of Brickell, downtown, Brightline l, and Little Havana.

– a shaded pavilion with room to turn into amphitheater for citywide concerts and guest speakers.

– Cohesion with neighboring new River District

– an air conditioned cafe with local American BBQ and Latin flavors

– (Optional) Ken Griffin wants to relocate his historical mansion somewhere public in Miami. This could be an iconic centerpiece.

These are renovations we have seen work in other cities and here in our own City at the Underline. This could add huge value, connect communities, and increase QOL with park space becoming more limited in Brickell, on a relatively modest budget.

36
Brickell Resident
10 months ago

Even if we just include an stately structure in the center, like Ken Griffin’s, or scultures with lush landscaping and greenery all around, it would look like Vizcaya or Versailles compared to what it is now.

14
Anonymous
10 months ago

We should have relocated the old Ursine Residence to the north end of Margret Pace Park or here, but nooo… Torn down for another box.

0
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

I’d be happy to volunteer and plant some things, but it’s too big a project for me to design on my own. I can serve as a resource and provide my design expertise as a no-cost volunteer consultant and even help plant on the weekends. Maybe we can organize a gardening club and work together.

9
Bruno
10 months ago

VOTE FOR PEDRO!

3
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Thank you, but I have too much work outside of my civic hobby. I do have a genuine interest in seeing people and Miami succeed and enjoy working together to find solutions. Witnessing the City continue to work together and improve is the biggest incentive of all.

1
Celia Cruz
10 months ago

You forgot the homeless..

6
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Celia, thank you for highlighting this one. Please note bullet two references the homeless, who are being neglected and ignored just like the present day park. I appreciate you helping raise awareness and support for this project.

9
Yes Way Jose Martí Park
10 months ago

What about a kayaking station for residents and tourists to take out in the river? It would be so popular and great for Miami. NYC has free kayaking in the Hudson River and that water is not even half as nice as the Miami River.

13
Bruno
10 months ago

Nice list with a lot of great ideas.
Are you aware that the Chetrit’s SAP negotiation has dedicated funds for the redesign of Jose Marti Park?
Once the construction dust settles on their property just east of I95, and the Miami River Greenway is ready to connect to it, they will get to work on the park improvements.

3
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Thank you, Bruno! This is helpful good news and appreciated.

I looked at designs on the landscape architect’s website and saw a cleaned-up version of the current park. I have ideas for transformative remodeling that could utilize the waterfront within budget, but possibly appeal to broader range of park enthusiasts.

I would like to share in due time since dust is settling east of I95 from other transformative enhancements to Brickell and greater downtown.

2
Reinitiating Miami River Greenway Plan
10 months ago

Page 47 of the Miami River Greenway Project shows diagrams of these cellular emergency call centers. We have seen them bring security to parks in Miami and throughout Florida. These would be ideal at new renovated Jose Martí Park and observation river deck.

https://miamirivercommission.org/PDF/greenway.PDF

0
Not Anonymous
10 months ago

Most things

6
Anonymous
10 months ago

That park is super run down….

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

Jose Martí Park reminds me of Hudson Yards, before it was cleaned up to cultural epicenter it is today.

Luxury retail, offices and residential are being built there now, so it’s a prime time to give this park some attention and focus on a designed plan.

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

Um, I didn’t know Jose Martí Park was a railyard.

-1
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Jose Martí Park is not an abandoned rail yard, but for Miami it is like the former Hudson Yards in many ways.

It is 8.9 acres of under utilized City land along a waterfront. Like Hudson Yards, existing infrastructure can be salvaged, repurposed and revisioned from a pedestrian perspective.

Similar to the Hudson Yards’ Highline, the Underline can connect to JMP via the Brickell River District. JMP has the bones and waterfront for a experiential Miami park and recreation space that can be easily accessed for residents in Brickell, Downtown and Little Havana.

There’s also still affordable land around it that can be used for new residential and commercial development.

It may have an industrial design, like Hudson Yards, but it’s connected to prime Miami neighborhoods and areas ripe for growth. Importantly it has capacity for a monument and large-scale recreational experience along the waterfront for the city to enjoy and tourism/economic activity to expand.

8
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

It’s also visible from I95 at a pivotal gateway to Brickell/Downtown. A monument and/or modern designed waterfront park could greatly enhance Miami’s 360 skyline on this front. It has the potential to impress visitors when they enter downtown Miami and give a memorable first impression.

5
Bruno
10 months ago

See previous post about existing plans for Jose Marti Park.

“Curtis + Rogers Design Studio was selected by the City of Miami for their expertise in urban design, landscape architecture, and engineering, and extensive local experience in Miami-Dade County.

Their team—composed of architects, ecologists, engineers, planners, scientists, and community engagement experts—are creating a dynamic vision for the park that will support a resilient Miami for generations to come”

You could plant some trees this weekend, but they will probably knock them down in a few years.

2
Bruno
10 months ago

Please stop. That is not how TIFs or the DDA work.
They don’t build Interstare Highways.

“I’d be happy to support this”. Of course.
If the GoFundMe page reaches $300,000,000 this year, I’ll chip in a thousand. If not, will you quit imagining that TIFs, CRAs, and DDA’s, can be run like a High School Student Council?

3
Brickell Underline District Advocate
10 months ago

Okay. I understand we can’t rebuild it, but we can outfit it into something special. As you said, in due course. Great comments today. Thank you.

3
Not Anonymous
10 months ago

The bridge will become a landmark when completed, but I wish that they would focus on other transit projects instead, like a rail line of any sort to the Beach.

20
Anonymous
10 months ago

Metromover will go to the beach

2
Anonymous
10 months ago

“Will.” LOL, as will a tin car shortbus WILL take any cars off the road and not stop breaking down.

0
Pleezzee
10 months ago

I would rather take the Metromover than have some broke SOB like you stick your hand out for gas money after riding me in that small tin can car of yours over to the beach.

-1
Anon
10 months ago

I get off at this exit every day and it’s always backed up. The new design does nothing to expand capacity at these exits.

3
anonymous
10 months ago

youre backed up because they havent finished the work lol

10
Anonymous
10 months ago

No…….

the lane expansion plans are all public – there is no expansion to the exits. This project adds capacity to northbound to FTL on i95 (adds one lane), separates beach traffic from downtown traffic, and augments exits around the health district. The actual exit/entrance capacity of these ramps isn’t being touched.

Trying to make the point that by the time this structure is complete it will already be obsolete given the thousands of people moving to this area in the next 5 years and no plans to expand on/off ramp capacity.

Invest in rail. This is a boondoggle.

15
Bruno
10 months ago

Not true.
There are significant improvements to ingress/egress in the area east of I95, improved capacity, and elimination ofcsome unsafe left lane merges, and a “straightening” of that serpentine stretch of 395.

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

Dumb comment. Have you even looked at the changes they are making?

0
Checo
10 months ago

The new design will improve flow and capacity.
The Bayshore ramp/exit is permanently closed now (so that has added to congestion now and until 2024), but closing that Bayshore ramp/intersection will provide better flow for capacity westbound on the approach to the Biscayne Blvd. and the new eastbound ramps will be larger and that will improve traffic flow out of that PAC, Museum, Arena, and MWC area.
That annoying ramps in the middle will also be modified which will increase safety and capacity.

1
anonymous
10 months ago

What alot of people do not understand about this is that FDOT gave the money to the county/city to do this job. Miami doesnt get to decide how the money is spent because FDOT determines that. While i agree that improving light rail is the better option under no circumstances would any politician say no to this much money to improve a major intersection in MIami that has probably a 100,000 plus cars a day drive on it.

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

Also people don’t realize the current 395 is in desperate need of repair.

-2
induced demand
10 months ago

Yes but unfortunately all this will do will make traffic even worse than it is now and puts Miami in a bad position for the future. While every other forward looking city is out there tearing down old highways, building more transit, and making thier city more people friendly, here we are doubling down on a terrible investment. It’s very short sided thinking.

3
Anonymous
10 months ago

SMH. The answer to traffic woes isn’t to make traffic worse. The answer is to offer better alternatives such as rail.

5
Anonymous
10 months ago

100%agreed, miami has no regard for people, only cars

0
Drac
10 months ago

This is an FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) doing, not Miami’s.

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

“Foward looking” cities everybody is leaving. Also, they are not tearing down freeways, rather undergrounding them, and you know in Miami… “muh water table.”

-6
Bruno
10 months ago

Not true.
The traffic flow, capacity, and safety will be improved significantly.

0
Anonymous
10 months ago

With additional real estate boom tax revenue and FDOT funding, does Miami have budget for revitalizing parks to be safe and beautiful?

3
Bruno
10 months ago

Because the new bridge is suspended in the air (and not resting on built up mounds of dirt), there will be a 33 acre linear public space. It will connect at the Biscayne Bay walk and go all the way to Gibson Park in Overtown.
FDOT is providing lots of money for it, some local government moneywill be used, and a mix of business and citizen volunteers will likely oversee management and governance.

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

I have faith in this project and think it could give us insight into other Greenway restorations like under I95.

I meant with all the money being saved here from FDOT support and all the new tax money collected, can we take on more park revitalization projects like Jose Martí Park / I95 Greenway, but you since illustrated a plan for that, which I greatly appreciate.

3
Bruno
10 months ago

True.
Nor should any resident.
The current bridges are unsafe and crumbling, the mounds of dirt care unsightly and create a physical barrier between museums, and neighborhoods.

Once the bridge is complete and the Underdeck/HEART is open, people will soon forget that walking from the museums on Biscayne Bay to Overtown was once ugly and dangerous.

2
anon anon
10 months ago

its an overpass not a bridge

1
Zz01
10 months ago

Dare you say…. Iconic??

1
Cringe
10 months ago

In other news the underdeck will now be called “the Overtown Miami Greenway”

12
Anonymous
10 months ago

And the logo will be a weed sign

10
Pleezzee
10 months ago

Yeah.. versus needles and pills…

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

It was a joke about “GREENway,” you pothead.

2
LOL
10 months ago

The Greenway will be going to the “CBD” …maybe the person naming them is the pothead.

2
BDub
10 months ago

OMG!

4
peej
10 months ago

OMG!

1
Anon
10 months ago

I know, it’s awful

2
Jdes
10 months ago

Or a stick figure urinating on the sidewalk.

1
Greater Downtown Development
10 months ago

Gross sounds like a honky tonk farmers market and Overtown had little to do with it. I hope the name gets vetoed. I thought it was going to be called the Heart. It should use some name like the “Great Palm Causeway” to get the spider imagery out of peoples heads.

Whoever names everything in Miami is doing an awful job… except the Underline, kudos to that one.

5
Anonymous
10 months ago

“Great Palm Causeway”….yikes. Don’t go into branding…keep it simple

2
What's Your Idea?
10 months ago

The Palm Causeway – for short, “The Palm”

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

/facePALM

0
Brand Ambassador
10 months ago

How about “The Canopy”? A name inspired by the lush tree canopies of Miami that everybody loves. A nod to the shade provided by the Overpass and tropical shapes of the arches. There can be a statement Banyon Tree monument with a matching logo that people can buy on merchandise.

If not here, then this can be included in the new Underdeck proposal at Jose Martí Park that folks are talking about.

5
Anonymous
10 months ago

Most people in branding just can’t keep it simple. Look at every other corporate merger or spinoff name. BB&T and SunTrust to “Truist?” What is wrong with “SunBB&T” or something? Johnson & Johnson spinning off it’s consumer health division into “KenVue?” What is wrong with McNeil Consumer Products, which is already on the packaging?

0
Bruno
10 months ago

Don’t blame the branding people on this one.
The branding people came up with The HEART.
That was confirmed by the popular vote.
However, a small, and vocal group of member of our community sent it back to the drawing board to ensure that Overtown be added. Now it’s a long choppy name that will likely be referred to as HEART colloquially.

-1
Give It A New Name
10 months ago

Well it’s NOT done until the sign gets ordered, and we have an even more vocal LARGE group that doesn’t want any one side getting special naming privileges.

How is that fair when it only adds one neighborhood name? It shouldn’t be a park that belongs to any ONE people, it should be a park for ALL, and more importantly have a catchy name for tourism and community to share.

Isn’t that what it’s all about? Not pandering to one small group that wants the spotlight for them. It’s a park not a Pulitzer Prize… Please rethink the official name, Miami is always caving on the names to please people rather than using names that are conventional and that everyone likes. Names matter.

There was not enough time for public comment. The second it was publicized the poll closed. That’s not fair and you’re seeing the outcry here on this website.

3
Make The Heart Official
10 months ago

That vocal community seems like they just want to be recognized and grasping for straws to get votes. The name of a road doesn’t improve lives. I can’t believe they value a neighborhood name more than the success of the park itself? Goes to show you what some people value and how that could derail something good for their own community. The whole point of this project was to incorporate Overtown into the city through actual experiences, not give the entire park to Overtown and botch it with a fugly name.

3
Anonymous
10 months ago

MacArthur Causeway Park.

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

Tell that to every “elected” local government official getting streets and parks with names which have existing for years to be renamed after their buddies.

4
OMG Nope
10 months ago

Liking this comment for its sarcasm, and should be at the top of this thread so people know how silly and repugnant the name sounds.

6
Anonymous
10 months ago

Yeah but people downvoted it lol

1
Se me paró
10 months ago

Horrible name. Too long…
Definitely not catchy

4
Anonymous
10 months ago

Not catchy and another concern is it’s sharability on social media – #TheOvertownMiamiGreenway is not going to happen….

1
Anonymous
10 months ago

Why not “The Arches”?

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

I like The Arches, and underneath can be called Mangrove Park.

4
#TheOMG
10 months ago

Lol I just got the OMG reference – omg change the name before OMG Miami becomes a laughing stock.

5
Anonymous
10 months ago

Two-thirds of it isn’t even in Overtown. Better than naming it after somebody who doesn’t deserve it, I suppose.

4
Bruno
10 months ago

The HEART of Miami.
Historic Entertainment Arts Recreation Trail

2
Give It A New Name
10 months ago

Yes use the Heart on all signs and maps. We are tired of opening different maps and seeing different names. That’s NOT normal or efficient.

2
Make The Heart Official
10 months ago

Wow the HEART acronym is genius – it should not just be colloquial. it should be on Tshirts and merchandise for all to buy and share. There should even be a road named after it, and tourism maps can say The HEART in bold caps.

Nobody will want to use OMG, and from the comments here, will be responded to with laughter if used. I think you can honor Overtown with a sign that says “Overtown” and an arrow directing people to the neighborhood.

3
anonymous
10 months ago

Literally non one asked for this.

People want a mass transit option to the beach. not a fancy car bridge.

8
Anonymous
10 months ago

I want both

4
Anonymous
10 months ago

I just wish it was faster and that the arches continued over the water

7
Anonymous
10 months ago

After what happened at FIU, I don’t care if it takes 10 years. Let them take their sweet time.

14
Antennae
10 months ago

The bridge will be revolutionary for the area and Miami

6
Herbert
10 months ago

Really 🙄

-1
Analyst
10 months ago

They have to build 6 arches. With the pace of the first one we have to be very patient…

6
Anon
10 months ago

Second one is out of the ground too

5
Anonymous
10 months ago

Love the arches, hate the highway. I’m really hoping that the linear green space beneath it is actually delivered as promised.

5
NOT ME
10 months ago

Let’s hope it’s delivered as promised, even though it has been turned over to the City for redesign. We all know what that means. Maintenence has also been turned over to the city. cringe! This will be one massive drug den in short order. Sad, but true.

1
New Wave of Leaders
10 months ago

Sad to see some have lost confidence in local leaders. This Underdeck can and will be a beautiful park if we elect the right people with talent and strong work ethics to finish the job, not just here but all across Miami.

2
Epic and
10 months ago

Iconic

1
and
10 months ago

transformative

0
Anonymous
10 months ago

This will be amazing when completed.

1
Abul Icktar Misha
10 months ago

Can’t wait to see the final product. The lighting looks amazing.

0
peej
10 months ago

only in Miami do we build a “Signature Bridge” over water…

Can’t believe how long this is taking, I’d be surprised if it’s finished by 2030.

0
Anonymous
10 months ago

Huh?

2
peej
10 months ago

ah shit, over Land*

3
Checo
10 months ago

For anyone that has missed this video (it’s almost 4 years old now), it still worth a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8URpzhAjkr0

It will provide more clarity on the safety, aesthetic, and capacity improvements of this undertaking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8URpzhAjkr0

These are the early work of the traffic engineers and does not give much clarity on the ramp improvements, ingress/egress at Bayshore, Biscayne, or NE 2nd Ave. However, there are going to be significant improvements.

0
Melo, the true giga chad
10 months ago

The orange, blue, and especially the purple section, they are going to have to close that road at least overnight. Its too much risk working overhead traffic like that.

-1
anon anon
10 months ago

I know this is Miami but, it’s an “OVERPASS” not a “Bridge”

-1
Anonymous
10 months ago

I hope the final design won’t have those ug!y seams

-1
Anonymous
10 months ago

what a waste of money

-1
Miami City Man
10 months ago

Hackneyed comments here expecting to ease congestion by adding vehicular lanes. Proven NOT to work nationwide. Never trust FDOT.

-2
calivalle
10 months ago

Love this design ..it will put Miami on the map…

-4