9 minute read
Connecting Communities Across Florida
By Joe VanHoose, Managing Editor
In July, the first of six steel arches was completed over what will ultimately become the signature bridge to Miami’s Interstate 395/State Road 836/Interstate 95 project.
A partnership between the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the Greater Miami Expressway Agency (GMX), the $840 million transformation of these arteries to Downtown Miami will enhance safety for drivers entering and exiting SR 836 and I-95 at the Midtown Interchange and create a new signature structure in the city’s skyline.
But the goals and scope of the project go much farther than just what motorists will experience. Safety will also be enhanced for pedestrians under the new I-395 bridges with creation of a contiguous trail from Northwest Third Avenue to Biscayne Boulevard, enhanced crosswalks and new bike lanes. The trail and underdeck park will reconnect communities in Downtown Miami that have long been segmented apart by the highway infrastructure.
“It’s going to be spectacular,” said Andrew Frey, director of Department of Real Estate and Asset Management (DREAM) for the the City of Miami. “The elevated highway is triple the height of the current elevated highway, so that is going to let in a lot more light and air, making a lot more pleasant space. The fact that it’s suspended with far fewer columns underneath means more unobstructed space to create a great community greenspace.”
Reconnecting Communities
The Miami Underdeck project is one of a handful of projects in Florida that have been awarded grant funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s
Reconnecting Communities Pilot (RCP) grant program. The RCP Program focuses on improving access to daily needs such as jobs, education, healthcare, food, nature and recreation, and fostering equitable development and restoration.
In 2023, the City of Miami received more than $60 million in RCP grant funding for the Underdeck. Since the program’s launch in 2022, community projects from Jacksonville to Tampa to Miami have been awarded a total of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Officially known as the “Connecting Miami I-395 Underdeck and Heritage Trail,” the Underdeck park will serve as a public gathering place that weaves below the elevated I-395 highway viaducts. A 33-acre urban open space and streetscapes will reunite the urban fabric of Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood that was disconnected during highway construction in the 1960s. The mile-long Heritage Trail will connect neighborhoods across active rail tracks, linking Overtown to Biscayne Bay.
The Underdeck will provide a safe place for walkers and joggers, bikers and scooters, encouraging non-vehicular transportation options, while improving quality of life, economic vitality and social equity for all through the creation of an environmentally sustainable and resilient urban landscape.
FDOT is working with the Archer Western-de Moya joint venture (JV) to reconstruct the I-395 viaducts, including the construction of the iconic “fountain” bridge structure. Meanwhile, the City is gathering community input on the exact features the Underdeck will have. The same JV will construct the Underdeck park in conjunction with finishing construction on the roadways above.
HDR is the engineer of record for the bridge and the I-395 roadways and also helped develop the vision for the Heritage Trail. The City of Miami is working with its landscape design partner Hargreaves Jones to fill in the details, gathering community input on the remaining design decisions.
“We are collaborating with FDOT and their JV on detailing the consensus plan design that was agreed to in early 2022,” Frey said. “So now our work is picking that back up and focusing on the work to detail that and engineer it and get it to construction drawings.”
Should all go according to plan, the Underdeck project would wrap up alongside the bridge work in 2027. When complete, success will be judged by a few different criteria, Frey said.
“(Success) could take the form of not only economic impact but also celebration and honoring of history, and being honest about some of the things that the community suffered through signage and other features – we’re not looking away from that,” Frey said. “In addition to the effect on the neighborhood, we hope it’s an amenity for all the residents of the City of Miami and a nice destination for those who visit us from across the world.”
Projects Spanning The State
Thirty miles north in Fort Lauderdale, the Broward County Metropolitan Planning Organization secured a $1.5 million USDOT Reconnecting Communities grant to move forward with Connect FTL, a project that will improve five highwayrail grade crossings of roadways with the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC) by tunneling under the railroad to improve pedestrian and cycling connections between the east and west sides of the city.
The FEC separates poorer, historically Black neighborhoods of Fort Lauderdale from the wealthier areas in the eastern part of the city. In addition, most services and facilities such as hospitals, schools, grocery stores, parks and entertainment venues, are on the east side.
The at-grade crossings create dangerous conditions for travelers, pedestrians and cyclists as the crossings lack sidewalks and bike lanes. The tunnels will add dedicated sidewalks and bike lanes at each intersection to address current safety and access needs, and in preparation of the opening of new commuter rail stations at two of the intersections.
Expected walk and bike accessibility improvements are expected to reach 12,000 and 100,000 residents, respectively.
Also in South Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe was awarded $784,668 from the USDOT to enhance connectivity, mobility, safety, economic development and equity within the Tribe's community, including two bridges over the Old Tamiami Trail.
This project aims to enhance access by creating safe routes for pedestrians and cyclists while still accommodating vehicular access, ensuring a comprehensive approach to accessibility. The Miccosukee Tribe's community primarily relies on Old Tamiami Trail for their daily activities.
In Duval County, Jacksonville Transportation Authority and Groundwork Jacksonville are moving forward with the Emerald Trail after receiving a $147 million Reconnecting Communities grant. The project will fund design and construction of 15 miles of a 30-mile trail and linear park system, connecting 14 neighborhoods to downtown. [Editor's Note: Read more about the Emerald Trail project in our Market Spotlight on page 34.]
Unite-ing Downtown Tampa
In its grant application for “UNITE: Ashley Drive,” the City of Tampa shared the direct feedback of these residents and many others in neighborhoods that have never recovered socially or economically from the bisection of North Downtown. For instance, the poverty rate in Ashley Drive’s census tract is 23%, 10 points higher than the statewide average.
A recipient of $5.35 million in RCP grants, the UNITE project will lower Ashley Drive’s interchange ramp to street level and introduce new roadway connections at Harrison and Royal Streets, reconnecting Downtown Tampa’s historic street grid. Additionally, the project will provide direct pedestrian and bike routes to the Hillsborough River and create new park spaces and affordable housing options.
It’s all part of a bigger plan for Downtown Tampa, which will ultimately have its Green Spine pedestrian and cyclist path run from North Hyde Park to Ybor City, connecting river walks on either side.
Still in the early stages, the City will soon hire a designer and contractors for the Ashley Drive project with hopes of having the three new downtown blocks recreated and ready in about five years. HNTB has served as a consultant partner and provided cost estimates for the project, and Kittelson & Associates helped with the grant process and community engagement. Kittelson also has served as the primary consultant in developing Tampa’s mobility plan, MOVES (Mobility, Opportunity, Vision, Equity, Safety).
“This project wasn’t conceived in isolation; it’s part of a whole picture and slew of new projects,” said City of Tampa Director of Mobility Vik Bhide. “The MOVES plan established some goals for us, and this project reflects those goals significantly.”
The Ashley Drive project is part of a broader effort to reduce and cycle tracks is that we want to make sure this area is accessible to affordable means of transportation,” Bhide said. “You won’t need a car to get around between Ybor, Downtown, the Channelside District and the Highlands, and now even West Tampa.”
The need to transform Ashley Drive was first identified in 2011 as part of the City of Tampa’s InVision City Center Plan, which highlighted the corridor as a barrier that prevented access to the riverfront. FDOT studied the traffic trade-offs in 2018 and looked for ways to integrate the project into a planned interstate project.
“The crux of this project or the principle we are working off of is twofold: one is our mobility plan, which came later, and the InVision plan, which really imagined the river as the center of the city and building out from there,” Bhide said. “This project was part of that, and the MOVES plan added the elements of equity and reconnecting the community.”
The application process to receive 2024 RCP funding is open through Sept. 30, with up to $607 million available for planning, capital construction and technical assistance.
EXPANDING BROADBAND TO LESS POPULATED AREAS
Beyond transportation and public space projects, the state has made gains in helping Floridians in rural communities connect easier to the web.
In February, the State of Florida awarded nearly $223 million to expand broadband internet access in the state, including small and rural communities. This funding includes $135 million in state funding through the Broadband Opportunity Program and $86 million in federal funds through the Multipurpose Community Facilities Program.
Awards through the Broadband Opportunity Program will support 54 projects in 33 Florida counties for broadband internet expansion that will provide internet to over 27,000 unserved residential, educational, agricultural, business and community locations.
Awards through the Multipurpose Community Facilities Program will support 29 community infrastructure projects including health clinics, schools and workforce development programs providing internet to residents across 18 counties.
