At the June 28, 2023 City Commission meeting, Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez sponsored an item (Item C7 AH) approving Resolution No. 2023-32659 (Attachment A) directing the City Administration (“Administration”) to evaluate whether the City of Miami Beach (“City”) can purchase the 63 Street bascule bridge or enter into an agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation “(FDOT” or “State”) to operate the bridge on behalf of the State at the City’s expense, which would provide the City with the ability to better control the bridge schedule and mitigate the severe vehicular traffic congestion caused by the bridge opening.

The 63 Street bascule bridge is a drawbridge located near the east end of State Road (“SR”) 907/63 Street between Allison Road and Indian Creek Drive. The operations and maintenance of the 63 Street bridge are under the jurisdiction of FDOT. FDOT engages a private contractor to provide bridge tender services. The bridge tender is responsible for controlling bridge activity and maintaining bridge activity logs.

The current schedule of the 63 Street bridge is as follows:

• From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, the bridge will open on the hour and half hour (only if there is demand).
• From 7:10 a.m. to 9:55 a.m. and from 4:05 p.m. to 6:59 p.m., Monday through Friday, except on federal holidays, the bridge will not open for the passage of vessels, except emergency vessels or tug/tow vessels.
• From 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Saturdays and Sundays, the bridge will open on the hour and half-hour (only if there is demand), except on federal holidays when the bridge will operate on demand. Outside of those hours, on Saturdays and Sundays, the bridge operates on demand.

The City’s Transportation and Mobility Department staff periodically requests the 63 Street bascule bridge activity logs from FDOT and conducts an in-depth review of the bridge activity logs to review activity and track compliance with the current schedule outlined above. City staff has reviewed the bridge activity logs for the last three (3) months (December, January and February). The analysis shows that a total of twelve (12) unauthorized bridge openings occurred.

Tangentially, at the February 21, 2024 City Commission meeting, Mayor Steven Meiner sponsored an item (Item C7 AA) approving Resolution No. 2024-32931 (Attachment B) directing the Administration to explore the statutory approval process for transfer of ownership to the City of certain FDOT causeways and/or major state roads within the City (including the MacArthur Causeway, Julia Tuttle Causeway, 5 Street, Alton Road, and Collins Avenue), to allow the City to impose tolls and/or congestion pricing tolling rates (with discounts for Miami Beach residents) during high impact event periods, and otherwise better control the movement of traffic on major streets. The Administration anticipates providing an update to the City Commission at the May 15, 2024 City Commission meeting.

Based on the periodically review of the bridge activity logs, City staff has found that a significant increase in documented maritime activity has contributed to significantly longer queues of vessels waiting to pass under the 63 Street bridge. This higher demand has increased the duration of bridge openings to approximately seven (7) minutes per opening. The increased duration of bridge openings has ultimately resulted in longer periods of traffic congestion along both directions of 63 Street, northbound Alton Road, and southbound Indian Creek Drive after a bridge opening. Furthermore, this congestion coupled with a high frequency of bridge openings does not allow the 63 Street corridor to recover and traffic signals to operate effectively.

The Administration is exploring the statutory approval process for transfer of ownership to the City of certain FDOT causeways and/or major state roads within the City, which includes the 63 Street bascule bridge. It is important to note that regardless of bridge ownership and jurisdiction, the United States Coast Guard (“USCG”) establishes and regulates drawbridge schedules pursuant to Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”) Title 33 Part 117 (“Navigation and Navigable Waters”).