About 30 feet below a triangle of public land at Fifth Street and Alton Road is a Florida Power & Light duct bank. According to the city, it "serves most of the South of Fifth neighborhood." Contractors hit it while drilling test piles and soil borings for the foundations of the 5th Street Pedestrian Bridge. The city calls it "critical infrastructure," and since then the city, the developer and FPL have been working out exactly where the lines run and how they affect the foundation design.
The bridge was supposed to give South of Fifth a way to walk north over the MacArthur Causeway approach without crossing traffic at street level. It can't put its footings where the neighborhood's electricity runs. Everything Miami Beach is weighing now is a way around that one buried line, and the main way around runs out into Biscayne Bay.
A Bridge Drawn to Close the Baywalk Loop
The Miami Herald describes the design as a candy-colored, two-span, 158-foot bridge over Fifth Street and Alton Road. Its purpose was to make that busy intersection safer for pedestrians and cyclists. French conceptual artist Daniel Buren designed it. It came out of the development agreement for what became Five Park, a 48-story tower at 500 Alton Road and one of the tallest in Miami Beach. That agreement is dated January 9, 2019, and under it the developers would build a public park in exchange for approval of the tower.
The park side of that agreement is built. Canopy Park, at 701 West Avenue, is open daily from sunrise to sunset. It has a playground, a dog park, fitness equipment, public art, seating and a water fountain. The bridge was the piece that would tie Canopy Park and West Avenue to the blocks south of Fifth. As The Real Deal described it, the bridge would carry pedestrians over the MacArthur Causeway at Fifth Street, connecting South of Fifth and the West Avenue area with the Baywalk near Five Park.
The Herald reports that the project broke ground in 2025 and was expected to open in the second half of 2026. Construction was later halted. With less than two months left in that window, the bridge site at the corner is still a construction zone.
The Corner Belongs to Everyone Except the Builder
The project is hard to unstick because the developer controls almost nothing at this intersection. The Florida Department of Transportation controls the right of way over Fifth Street and the causeway approach, and several utilities run through the area. The developer submitted final plans to FDOT on February 21, 2024. FDOT approved the structural comments, but as of the city's October 21 update, the Use & Occupancy Agreement was still pending.
The power lines underneath are FPL's. City officials told commissioners that state law does not clearly set the required vertical clearance between bridge foundations and utilities. FPL is not obligated to help relocate the lines, and City Manager Eric Carpenter said at the commission meeting that relocating them could cost tens of millions of dollars, according to The Real Deal.
On August 21, a lawyer for the developer, TCH 500 Alton, wrote to the city. As The Miami Lookout summarized it, the letter said the deep FPL lines leave no room for the bridge's footings and that moving them is not feasible. On that basis, ending the bridge project and building a baywalk instead "appears to be the only workable path forward." The letter also said the developer had spent nearly $2.7 million of its own money on the bridge. The Herald reports that $2 million in public money has also been spent.
Terra CEO David Martin told the Herald that the company had given the city engineering reports documenting the utility conflicts. He said its engineers advised against going ahead with the design because of the risks to construction workers and to critical power infrastructure.
Three Questions for an Outside Engineer
The city has not accepted the developer's conclusion. On September 10, 2026, the City Commission voted 7–0 for an independent engineering assessment. The resolution directs the administration to evaluate the developer's findings. If the bridge proves infeasible, the city is to negotiate with the developer right away to design and build an alternative path under the existing agreement. Mayor Steven Meiner told the Herald, "If we find that they can do it, we've got to force their hand."
The city first went to Kimley-Horn, the firm that had peer-reviewed the bridge design. Kimley-Horn declined, citing potential conflicts of interest. The city then turned to Stantec, an international consultant. The proposed scope asks Stantec three things, in order:
- Can the bridge be built as currently designed and permitted despite the FPL conflicts?
- If not, can workarounds refine the current configuration so it fits the same spot?
- If neither works, what are the alternatives?
The answer to the first question sets the length of the wait. Stantec estimates four to six months if a fix turns up early, and nine to 12 months if the bridge can't be built as designed. The current construction schedule shows the bridge finished in fall 2027. The city says plainly that this date does not include the feasibility study or any delays from redesign and permitting.
That clock had not started by late October. At the October 21 committee meeting, capital improvement projects director David Gomez said the scope was finished and Stantec's early cost estimate was under review. The city hoped to issue the work order within a week or two, according to The Miami Lookout. The administration was also still checking Stantec for possible conflicts of interest before finalizing the contract. At the same meeting, one committee member said the city cannot spend nine or 12 months studying the bridge.
The Way Around Runs Through the Bay
If the footings can't share the corner with the duct bank, the crossing has to stay clear of that ground. The city's own engineering memo says an over-water segment under the MacArthur Causeway "presents a simplified solution" from a construction standpoint.
There isn't much headroom under the causeway near the seawall. To find enough clearance to pass beneath it, the walkway would have to reach about 300 feet or more into the bay, making a segment roughly 700 feet long.
Going out into the bay brings in a separate list of agencies, each with its own process, as laid out in the city's October 21 committee memo on the over-water option:
- Environmental surveys first. Benthic resource surveys for seagrass, corals and protected species, with mitigation if any are found.
- Federal, state and county permits. The memo expects challenges from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Miami-Dade County's Regulatory and Economic Resources Department, "likely resulting in a multi-year permitting process."
- FDOT again. The baywalk would sit within FDOT's existing easement and would need its approval.
- A new species rule. The queen conch's recent federal listing as threatened could add U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service consultation and limit when in-water construction can happen.
- The channel and the neighbors. Possible U.S. Coast Guard approval near marked navigation channels, a state submerged land lease, and possibly easements from adjacent property owners whose riparian rights the walkway could cross.
The cost estimate is based on the city's recent 1250 West Avenue development agreement, which valued baywalk segments at $35,000 to $40,000 per linear foot. For a 700-foot segment, that comes to $24.5 million to $28 million. The existing agreement caps the city's contribution at $10 million from the 2018 G.O. Bond, with the developer covering the rest. A Florida Inland Navigation District grant of about $3 million was awarded for the bridge, and the city does not yet know whether it can be amended for an over-water project.
So the baywalk option moves the bridge's problem from underground to the permit desk. The developer's letter calls it the only workable path. The city's memo describes permitting that could take years and an estimated cost roughly two and a half times the city's $10 million cap. Who covers the gap is already being discussed. At the October committee meeting, a member said any added cost from a workaround or alternative should fall on the developer. Mayor Meiner pointed to the September 10 resolution as already holding the developer accountable for paying.
The bay side of West Avenue already has a working example of this kind of walkway. The Baywalk segment behind the Mondrian Hotel and Mirador condominiums, at 1000–1200 West Avenue, was reported complete and open to the public at the city's March 25, 2026 committee meeting. The missing piece is still the crossing at Fifth Street.
What the Corner Looks Like Until a Decision
On October 14, the City Commission took up a resolution directing the administration to work with the contractor on cleaning up the bridge site and improving how it looks, including temporary landscaping, grass and sod. At the October 21 committee meeting, Gomez said the city had told the developer it wants the area cleaned up and planted with sod so it looks less like a construction site.
The committee took no vote that day. Commissioner Laura Dominguez, who sponsors the monthly status report, asked to bring it back the following month. She also said colleagues had backed her resolution to tighten future development agreements. On October 13, Five Park's master association and a unit owner filed a federal lawsuit against the developer and the city seeking to get the bridge built. The developer's attorney told The Real Deal that they disagree with the allegations.
For people south of Fifth, the next milestones are on paper. The first is a signed Stantec work order. The second is that firm's answer to whether the footings can coexist with the duct bank. If they can't, the over-water design goes to its first meetings with regulators, and the city has said it will need concept drawings before it can engage them.
Public infrastructure commitments like this one sit behind many South of Fifth and West Avenue addresses, and how they hold up depends on agencies and utilities that aren't at the closing table. If you own near Fifth and Alton or are weighing a move around this corner and want to talk through how projects like this bridge figure into a decision, Carlo Dipasquale is glad to look at it with you. Schedule a private consultation.
