Signature Bridge Gets FAA Height Approval

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a determination stating that the arches of the Signature Bridge do not pose a hazard to air navigation.

The FAA decision was issued on August 1, after just a few months of review. The agency had previously approved the heights of the arches in 2019 after a review that took about a year, but that approval had expired.

Here are the newly approved heights:

  • Top of Arch 1 – 180 feet above ground
  • Top of Arch 2 – 230 feet above ground
  • Top of Arch 3 – 180 feet above ground
  • Top of Arch 4 – 250 feet above ground
  • Top of Arch 5 – 330 feet above ground
  • Top of Arch 6 – 250 feet above ground

Construction is already underway, with completion expected in 2027.

Archer Western de Moya JV is listed as the sponsor in the FAA application.

 

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Azure
1 month ago

What’s the point of a review when the towers right next to the bridge are significantly higher? Seems like a giant waste of time and money.

Anon
1 month ago

Been saying this for ages. Enormous waste of resources on both ends.

Anonymous
1 month ago

The arches will be nice in photos, but in terms of livability this area has a way to go with decades of construction and congestion of added freeways. At least it’s will open up more desirable affordable housing in the core.

Downtowner
1 month ago

I live in the area and it’s very livable right now as is but this will certainly make it even nicer.

Anonymoose
1 month ago

the bridge’s inherent design was antithetical to btter development. by putting the pillars in the center, they’ve killed ANY chance of a metro line running up the center or sides of the 836. this was designed with absolutely no thought to future congestion or uses of the roadway or expansion of mass transit.

literally 1 billion dollars pissed away just to give some contractors more work to do and waste FDOT money

Analyst
1 month ago

Bloated unionized federal government agency employees need something to do…

KC Jones
1 month ago

It’s a requirement from the FAA of all structures of a certain height relative to all major airports. The FAA that reviews this is in Atlanta. Also, this location is not on the flight path but it is on the instruments path and therefore will require review and sign-off. The airline industry is the most regulated. Public safety requirement otherwise zoning would run amok.

Anonymous
1 month ago

If a building cannot be a certain height from point A onward, it is pretty simple to understand that the each new construction could impede the boundary… So yes each building needs to be evaluated and reviewed because we don’t know which one is going to cross the boundary until it does!

*NAME*
1 month ago

FAA is Federal Aviation Administration… not Help Planes Avoid Buildings Administration.

they have requirements to keep records for any permanent structures over a certain height. This isn’t an approval to build to that height, it’s a permit to build meaning they have all their documents and paperwork in order. commenters see everything on the surface and complain, without thinking of what this information is needed for.

Mr. Bing
1 month ago

This is the biggest waste of resources this city has ever seen.

If only they’d invested that money in expanding the metrorail and metro mover

Anonymous
1 month ago

Good thing construction was already underway BEFORE the approval…wtf is going on here?!?!

Downtowner
1 month ago

I’m really looking forward to the completion of this project. I think it’s going to look amazing and will provide yet another icon for Miami’s skyline.

Anon
1 month ago

Billion dollar bridge that will be flooded within a 5 minute rain. Thank you FDOT

Anonymous
1 month ago

Could’ve easily skipped out on the arches and simply built a better road and use the money saved from not building the arches to build other better roads.

*NAME*
1 month ago

I’m certain bridge design is above your pay grade but these arches offer structural support, not just there for show.

Anonymous
1 month ago

My pay grade is higher than you can imagine chief the point is that they should’ve made a simpler design overall.

MM305
1 month ago

Dont forget this is the same group that people expect to build a tunnel to remove the brickell bridge and I95 overpass. LOL

Anonymous
1 month ago

Over I95 is a bridge because it’s above the Miami River and looks pretty. This atrocity is an overpass double decker highway that has made a ghetto even more unlivable.

Anonymous
1 month ago

The I-95 bridge looks pretty? Maybe to the homeless junkies who live under it when hallucinating.

Anonymous
1 month ago

There’s a luxury shopping, hotels and restaurant space going up all around – much nicer and less homeless than the area of overpass downtown.

Dumbo in Brickell.
1 month ago

The Miami Freeway Bridge just needs good lighting and music below, and it will look like Dumbo, NYC. Anyone want to throw a silent disco to get it started?

Anonymous
1 month ago

It’s an overpass, not a bridge.

Anonymous
1 month ago

I wish it continued above water.

Choo Choo
1 month ago

Honestly this. Plenty of cities have beautiful bridges but I have no clue why ours are all so boring. The idea of a signature bridge is cool but putting it above land is idiotic imo

Robert
1 month ago

The bridge to nowhere, another taxpayer fleece

Name
1 month ago

We could have had art, monuments and nice street corners on every block in Miami, instead we are paying for the park west foreign investors project.

Andres
1 month ago

Federal approvals are required for a lot of things if it’s within a certain distance from the airport.

Anonymous
1 month ago

no s**t sherlock!

Anonymous
1 month ago

I love this project, it will make our skyline a lot nicer. Any update on the park below?

Sven
1 month ago

Yes. The organization is in place to fund it and commitments are being lined up. Once the City of Miami decides how the area will governed, “the friends of the OMG” or whatever they end up being called are ready to go.

Anonymous
1 month ago

will get blocked by future buildings.

Not Anonymous
1 month ago

So sad that this is what FDOT is focusing on, but at least it’ll include a park. Hope the construction doesn’t get delayed more so that driving on I 395 won’t be such a nightmare.

Yeppers
1 month ago

The park hasn’t been funded and will probably be delayed until well after the highway is finished.

Sven
1 month ago

I’ll bet you $5,000 that the park will be funded.
Just send your payment to the conservatory that should manage that task when the time is right.

Anonymous
1 month ago

The park which was supposed to be the only worthy part of this project, will not happen.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Another bait and switch park

Anonymous
1 month ago

It’s such a dangerous highway! So many points where people can drive off the cliff by mistake

Gerald
1 month ago

There should be a new FAA rule that structures that are at or below a height of an previously approved and built structure, get automatic FAA clearance.

*NAME*
1 month ago

This wasn’t a matter of an approval to construct as much as it was get your paperwork in order and provide us the required documentation. Paperwork is what separates us from the animals, Gerard.

Anonymous
1 month ago

🙈

Anonymous
1 month ago

Park West will look even sexier after this is done!

Anonymous
1 month ago

They will probably rename park west to Fido Freedom Freeway by time this is done

Anonymous
1 month ago

This billion dollar bridge it’s still diving downtown and the city to the north. The best solution would of been a below grade highway that would of unify downtown and points north in an unifying way.

Yeppers
1 month ago

This project is so dumb.

Yep
1 month ago

I really dont get the point of this either. The money could be better spent in so many other ways. The powers that be fail us once again. Election time can’t come soon enough.

DWNTWNR
1 month ago

Just remember this is an FDOT project, so you’ll wanna channel that energy on state elections. State house reps, state senators, and governor.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Right, I’m sure the other side will use the money better, like fpr needle vending machines.

Sven
1 month ago

There are a lot of people who do not get it.
Perhaps this will help you get a clue.

I-395 was constructed about 60 years ago by building roads on top of mounds of dirt when Miami was a small tourist town.

The highway twists and turns like a serpent with on ramps and off ramps entering from both sides of the roads.
Structural engineers have rated the bridges some of the most dangerous around.
Traffic engineers agree that on/off ramps in both right lanes and left lanes are not best practice in highway safety.

People with common sense who walk in the area notice that the very large mounds of dirt are a physical barrier to pedestrian traffic and make the entire area uninviting and attract a criminal element.

Suspending a new bridge, rather than building on mounds of dirt, will afford more connectivity between the multi billion dollar arts, culture, and sports facilities for the community. The linear park under the signature bridge will add 33 acres +/- of public space that will connect Overtown to the waterfront and community institutions.

As long as FDOT is there to make the bridges structurally sound, and straighten out that serpentine freeway, might as well 33 acres of community space along with it.

Bureaucrats are not elected.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Reform the FDOT. Redesign and update our inner city streets before adding fatty highways that are nightmare to drive on.

Anonymous
1 month ago

They are appointed and managed by Gov DeSantis

DWNTWNR
1 month ago

I’d like to add that state reps, senators, and the governor are all involved in appropriating funds to projects like these. If you elect state legislators and governors who support hundreds of millions to go towards transit instead of highways, that *will* impact projects like this.

Billions Blown by DeSantis / 4 Seasons No Commonse
1 month ago

Governor DeSantis IS the problem.

This is the budget he passed for FDOT:

– $5.5 BILLION for highway construction

– $791.3 million in rail and transit investments

– $404.3 million in aviation investments

Billions on highways! Pennies on aviation and rail. That’s why our airports look the way they do, and we haven’t gotten any quality improvements to our metro systems.

DeSantis doesn’t care about Miami!

https://www.fdot.gov/info/co/news/2023/06162023

Billions Blown by DeSantis / 4 Seasons No Commonse
1 month ago

BILLIONS

Anonymous
1 month ago

Miami was a small tourist town 60 years ago? Um, no… Way to invalidate your entire monologue.

Laurence Fosgate
1 month ago

That was a ridiculous statement to be sure . Miami was already a major metro at that point and the gateway to Latin America.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Miami was one of the 50 biggest cities in the country 60 years ago. South Florida was already a top 15 metro and Dade County was one of the most populated counties in America.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Miami wasn’t for crap until “Sven” showed up, lol.

The Truth
1 month ago

Totally incorrect.
In 1963, Miami was NOT in the top 50 of the largest cities by population.

Tampa, FL was the only Florida city in the top 50, and they ranked #34.

Detroit, MI was #5 with a population of 1,678,000+, which is bigger that all of Dade County at the time.

In 1963, the Miami Dolphins were not even a team, neither were the Marlins, Panthers, or Heat.
Florida International University did not exist.
Carnival Cruise Lines did not exist.
Air conditioning was starting to emerge in residential housing.
The Cuban “Freedom Flights” had not yet begun.

Name
1 month ago

Like the Miami River Walk where people actually want to live.

Anonymous
1 month ago

The infrastructure in this city is embarrassing.

Aqui Estoy
1 month ago

It’s the American way.
Not just here.
Take your pick
American cities priority is the car and the hell to human scale infrastructure.

Anonymous
1 month ago

That’s not the American way, it’s what the FDOT and lazy leaders convince Latin people is America. It’s not.

Aqui Estoy
1 month ago

It’s the American way. Like it or not.
Our cities are the size of countries. All in the name of urban sprawl, cookie cutter development and gated communities all dependent to a mechanical horse named the car.
And if you don’t see that you’re either delusional or a denier

Anonymous
1 month ago

Your dream is to have everyone living in bunker apartments and taking trains everywhere. You will own nothing and be happy comrade.

Give me attention
1 month ago

^^This is your brain on car fumes. You’re probably the same type to complain about the amount of traffic at 1:00 PM on Saturday.

Metromover conductor
1 month ago

tell us how the car hurt you

Anonymous
1 month ago

No my dream is to never leave Little Havana because there’s too much traffic and the City doesn’t think we are worth the benefit of public transit. They’d rather see our community slowly dwindle and move to Palm City.

Anonymous
1 month ago

gotta learn the Inglesa to live in Palm City

anon
1 month ago

who doesn’t speak english in miami? this isnt miami 10 years ago, the city has adopted english everywhere.

Nope
1 month ago

Yeah because all their leased sports cars are the way to financial independence?

Name
1 month ago

No the American way is to stop outside investors from exploiting the natural beauty of their homegrown culture with ugly double decker highways… small towns across America has the intrusion of highways. American cities were built on rail and pedestrian activity. Florida is an exception and DeSantis and FDOT are ruining Miami by exploiting wealth to build highways just for the sake of adding bandages and making money off the people of Miami.

Anonymous
1 month ago

Miami isn’t a suburb. Suburbs have gated communities and cars, and many people like the feeling of isolation it brings them. Cities have metros and people walk within a 15 minute radius for everything and use the car for special trips.

Cover the Podiums
1 month ago

how much are these “reviews” costing the city? someone is pocketing $50k for no reason

DWNTWNR
1 month ago

FAA is federal, my dude. City isn’t involved.

Cover the Podiums
1 month ago

The city is paying them for these reviews my guy

DWNTWNR
1 month ago

Please point to the federal administrative rule that specifies municipalities have to pay the federal government to review state projects.

*NAME*
1 month ago

No, they’re not. FDOT (state) is paying for these reviews.

Name
1 month ago

Paying their buddies to state the obvious.

Anon
1 month ago

Work somewhere where processes are ad-hoc and then you will know. Give an inch take 10 miles sort of thing.

Pepe Valdes
1 month ago

What a fraud paid for by the Citi tax payer. Another giant step on making the city less affordable.

Cody
1 month ago

I think that it looks fine but the cost of it is certainly impressive. Sounds like the area beneath is being gentrified.

Snail
1 month ago

2027! Wow. For a bridge? Only in Miami Florida

Anonymous
1 month ago

It’s the bridge AND the double decker highway

Anonymous
1 month ago

It’s not even a bridge it’s an Overpass, they could be upgrading the parks under the actual Miami river bridges and waterfront river walk.

anon
1 month ago

not true, this project is not just the bridge – it is raising the whole section of highway in addition to building an upper level from the toll plaza at NW 17th. This second level will provide a direct route to the port and the beach. The most significant benefit will be a 30 acre park to an area of the city that has gained thousands of new residents over the past decade or so….

Anonymous
1 month ago

A 30 acre homeless shelter or park?

Anonymous
1 month ago

The homeless are being sent to NYC

Anonymous
1 month ago

It’s an overpass, and split downtown even more

anonymous
1 month ago

its the entire 836/95 intersection, plus new bridge portion and the double decker coming from 836

Downtowner
1 month ago

By 2027, this bridge will be finished, Worldcenter will be fully activated with so many more towers in place. Casa Bella will be finished. Waldorf Astoria will be finished. So many new projects will be completed too. Downtown will look AMAZING!! …hopefully we will have a Metromover to the beach and midtown at a minimum too.

Anonymous
1 month ago

By 2027, the contractor will be requesting an additional $50million to complete it 2 years behind schedule.

Nunya
1 month ago

This needed months to be reviewed. WTF?!? Proof Gov = Retards!

Recall DeSantis
1 month ago

Just the DeSantis admin, incompetents.