Rickenbacker Causeway master plan on fast track

Expediting a Rickenbacker Causeway upgrade, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told commissioners last week that the administration is selecting a consultant for a causeway master plan due early next year.

The master plan, her memo said, is geared for causeway improvements “to work to aggressively prioritize pedestrians’ and cyclists’ safety” along the only roadway that links Key Biscayne and the mainland.

Her memo also says that a separate study is to “analyze the options for the rehabilitation or replacement of the Bear Cut Bridge from Virginia Key to Key Biscayne” that “will be expedited to achieve the start of construction as soon as possible.” The memo has no timelines.

Miami Today reported earlier that commissioners were to act on a $2.2 million contract with HNTB Corp. for annual physical inspections of the bridge and the entire causeway. The article noted that HNTB is to report on toll revenue capabilities, since tolls have been considered the funding source for a new Bear Cut Bridge.

As the study is being developed, the mayor told commissioners, the county “will pursue federal, state and other grant opportunities to fund necessary improvements to the Bear Cut Bridge.”

The Bear Cut Bridge, on the causeway’s east end, was built in 1944 and upgraded under the administration of former Mayor Carlos Giménez. Past studies pointed toward need for a $90 million bridge replacement. A focal point was documented deterioration of the below-surface support pilings.

Privately financed causeway redevelopment was offered in Plan Z, which would have replaced the Bear Cut Bridge and repaired the causeway, funded by tolls and revenues that additions to the causeway would generate. At county urging, Plan Z was extended to take in the Venetian Causeway, then separated from that causeway, which is about to undergo its own upgrades. Ultimately, the county last year rejected Plan Z.