Thursday, June 16, 2022
6pm

Miami City Hall
3500 Pan American Dr
Miami, FL 33133

The City of Miami, in partnership with other government and private entities, is working on the design of the I-395 Pedestrian Baywalk Project, which will provide connectivity to bicycles and pedestrians from the Maurice Ferre Park, through the PAMM and Frost Museums, to NE/NW 14 Street along Biscayne Bay. This will add pedestrian connectivity to an additional segment by our beautiful Biscayne Bay for equitable access for fitness and enjoyment!

In the future, this segment will also provide pedestrian and non-motorized community access to the future I-395 Underdeck Project.

Project Objectives:
  • Pedestrian Connectivity – provide pedestrian connectivity for equitable access to a new waterfront open space destination.
  • Resiliency – integrate a resilient waterfront space and seawall that is adaptive to sea-level rise and mitigates the impacts of flooding from storm surge, heavy precipitation and high tides.
  • Environmental and ecological protection – create a naturalized waterfront and shoreline that restores terrestrial and marine environment quality and ecosystem services.
  • Infrastructure integration – draft plans to integrate the existing infrastructure into the pedestrian corridor.
  • Community and cultural activities – celebrate the history, culture and nature of the waterfront through community programming and activities.

CONNECTIVITY TO FUTURE I-395 UNDERDECK PROJECT



AREA HIGHLIGHTED IN YELLOW SHOWS THE PROPOSED NEW BAYWALK SEGMENT


 
"Along Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami, after 40 years of incremental development, the 5-mile shared use, waterfront path along known as the Baywalk is almost 90% complete. Currently the largest publicly-owned barrier preventing the Baywalk from being fully complete runs from Maurice A. Ferré Park in the south, under the MacArthur Causeway Bridge to the former Herald Plaza site in the north. This 500-foot section forces pedestrians and bicyclists to circumnavigate the site to the west by passing through the heavily trafficked US-1/I-395 interchange and find their way back to waterfront near the Venetian Causeway. This effectively closes off the Baywalk. Until the Baywalk is fully complete, it will not realize its full potential as the spine of Downtown Miami, the open space amenity that connects three distinct neighborhoods, and the conduit that allows waterfront access to all residents/visitors, not just those that afford to live on the water. Further, South Florida is faced with the very real threats of climate change: sea level rise (SLR), storm surge, sunny-day flooding and displacement. Thus, this project needs to equally address economy, ecology, and equity. 

The site is located underneath the I-395 MacArthur Causeway, between Maurice A. Ferré Park (1103 Biscayne Blvd. Miami, FL 33131) in the south, to the former Herald Plaza site (1 Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33131) in the north. The consultant team will be tasked with designing an approximately 20-foot wide, over-the-water pedestrian and bicycle (ped/bike) bridge underneath the causeway that will connect the two sites. The approximate run length is 500 feet."