Collins Canal bike path should be complete by late April, city says

Bike path and seawall work between Alton Road and Michigan.

Stalled work on the Collins Canal seawall and bike path has resumed, and the project should be complete in late April, Belle Isle residents were told this week.

Construction on the seawall and bike path was halted last fall after Miami-Dade prosecutors arrested former Miami Beach procurement director Gus Lopez on  63 charges including racketeering, bid-tampering and illegal compensation in connection with a dozen different city contracts. The bike path contract, with Harbour Construction, is one of the projects tied to that investigation.

The city has decided to move forward with the work, said Rick Saltrick, chief capital projects engineer for the city.

“We stopped work for a while because of procurement issues,” he told a gathering of the Belle Isle Residents Association on Wednesday night. ” We decided to go ahead and let him finish….We shouldn’t punish the rest of the city” with an unfinished project.

Harbour Construction had already been been paid more than $3.6 million on the $4 million project. The Miami Herald reported that police said company employees admitted to falsifying a letter of credit and receiving leaked information about other companies’ bids.

The project extends the existing bike path from where Dade Boulevard splits off of 17th Street at the Collins Canal bridge to Convention Center Drive.  In all, it’s 2,900 long, and will enable bikers, runners and parents pushing strollers to get from Belle Isle to the beach on a nice sidewalk all the way.

The improvements include raising the existing seawall to address times of high water. Completed, the path will feature a wider concrete path, landscaping and improved lighting using LED fixtures.

More Dade Boulevard closures for Collins Canal bikeway construction

A reminder: Construction of the bikeway and running path along the Collins Canal on Dade Boulevard will make running and riding safer from Belle Isle all the way to the beach.

Think about that as you navigate around the short-term inconvenience of road closures and lane shifts on Dade Boulevard.

The activity today involves shifting eastbound and westbound lanes on Dade between Michigan and Meridian avenues to the north, leaving one lane in each direction.  This is the area between the Dade Boulevard Publix (the old Publix) and Miami Beach High School.

Crews will be working on the Collins Avenue seawall. The regular traffic pattern should be restored on Friday. Eastbound detours at the 17th Street/Dade Boulevard bridge (Between the split and Alton Road) continue.

Get ready to detour; Dade Boulevard closing again

Dade Boulevard will be closed eastbound from the bridge at the split with 17th Street Bridge to Alton Road starting early Friday morning, and traffic will be detoured through 17th Street.

It’s part of the continuing construction of the Collins Canal bikeway, and will continue for much of the next week.

More delays, closures, on Venetian Causeway and Dade Boulevard this week

Are Belle Isle and the Venetian Islands  the epicenter of road construction?

If you drew a line from west edge of the Venetian Causeway and followed it to the Atlantic at 21st Street, you’d see earth movers and paving equipment all along the path.

Of course, if you live in neighborhoods north of Dade Boulevard and Miami Beach Golf Course, you’d get to enjoy a sewer line project, too.

In the spirit of survival and maintaining sanity, here’s this week’s road report:

– Dade Boulevard will be closed eastbound from Michigan to Meridian avenues for work on the Collins Canal pedestrian-bike path. Westbound Dade Boulevard will be open to all traffic. This will remain the case through mid-April, according to the city of Miami Beach.

– On the Venetian Causeway, the installation of pink concrete crosswalks is nearly done, and repaving the road is moving ahead on Rivo Alto, DiLido, San Marino and San Marco islands. At varying times, only one lane will be open, and flagmen will be directly traffic. Expect slowdowns and tire crunching bumps on the route.

– Miami-Dade County public works, which is overseeing the Venetian Causeway work, is winding down this phase of the work — with the finish in sight. Expect smooth sailing in about a month — hopefully before the rainy season. Then we’ll see how the new drains work.

And if that isn’t enough: There is a public hearing on Tuesday,  March 27 on the proposed West Avenue Bridge. It happens at the Miami Beach Regional Library, 227 22nd St. (and don’t try to get there by going east on Dade Boulevard). The meeting room opens at 6 p.m. and the presentation starts at 6:30 p.m.

There is parking behind the library.

 

Dade Boulevard east to close again

Eastbound lanes on Dade Boulevard will be closed again Tuesday east of Bay Road on Miami Beach so construction can resume on the new bike/pedestrian path along the Collins Canal.

The roadway was closed to eastbound traffic between Bay and Alton roads for much of January and early February, but the city reopened the  stretch to accommodate boat show traffic.

For drivers, the workaround is to bear right on 17th Street and then turn left on Alton Road.

Dade Boulevard to close for a month for construction

Sketches of the railing for the path.

We reported work would begin quickly on the elevated bike-walk path along the Collins Canal. How quickly?

Starting next Tuesday — Jan. 17 — road crews will close eastbound Dade Boulevard from where is starts at the 17th Street/Dade Boulevard split near Sunset Harbour to Alton Road. (note: signs on Venetian Way near the closure say it will happen Thursday, Jan. 12, but the city says it won’t be til next week).

The closure is taking place so work can begin on the Collins Canal seawall replacement, which has to happen before the multi-use path is put in place.

“The closure is necessitated for the equipment needed to drive the pilings for the seawall project,” said city of Miami Beach spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez.

“The closure is only eastbound on Dade Boulevard between the 17 Street Bridge and Alton Road. The bridge will remain open and the closure does not affect westbound lanes. The piling work must be completed before the Boat Show move-in begins.”

The signs warning of the closure on the Venetian Causeway say the closure will last until Feb. 10.

In the meantime, drivers from Belle and other Venetian Islands will have to detour by continuing east on 17th Street and then turning north on Alton.

Miami Beach may upgrade Dade Boulevard bike paths

The Public Works Department of Miami Beach is planning a community meeting to outline plans for upgrading the bike paths on Dade Boulevard with a new concrete path, landscaping and improved lighting using LED fixtures.

The project extends from 17th Street along Dade to the Convention Center.

The project would go from where Dade Boulevard splits off of 17th Street at the Collins Canal bridge to Convention Center Drive. If you’ve ever biked, jogged or walked that stretch, you know it’s pretty ragged. The improvements would include raising the existing seawall to address times of high water.

The meeting happens at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 1755 Meridian Ave. on the second floor.