The City of Miami Beach's construction schedule still says the pedestrian bridge linking South of Fifth's bayside walk to the baywalk north of 5th Street will be finished in fall 2027. The same city memo also says that date "does not account for the feasibility study or potential delays from possible redesign and permitting." That study is meant to find out whether the bridge can be built where it was designed to go. In the memo prepared for the committee's October 21 meeting, no consultant had yet been hired to do it.
What blocks the bridge is the power line that serves the neighborhood the bridge is meant to connect.
The bridge site sits on top of South of Fifth's power supply
The bridge is part of the Development Agreement for the 5 Park project. Its developer, TCH Alton, LLC, agreed to design, permit and build a pedestrian bridge over 5th Street and West Avenue. The bridge would link the baywalk south of 5th Street to the 5 Park site and the baywalk to the north. The developer sent final plans to the Florida Department of Transportation on February 21, 2024. FDOT approved the structural comments, but its approval of the Use & Occupancy Agreement was still pending this fall.
In October 2025, the contractor was drilling test piles and soil borings for the foundations. About 30 feet down, the drill hit a utility that wasn't on the records. According to the city, it was "an FPL power duct bank, which serves most of the South of Fifth neighborhood." The city calls the project's site problems mostly the result of "undocumented or erroneously recorded underground utilities." Because the line is critical infrastructure, the work stopped being about drilling and started being about finding exactly where the cables run.
So the delay comes from something useful sitting where the foundation needs to go. The bridge that would let people walk off the peninsula along the water runs into the cables that light the peninsula's towers.
From a drill strike to an order for an outside review
The city's memo for the October 21, 2026 committee meeting lays out the sequence since then.
- February 25, 2026. The City Commission passed a resolution holding back utility easements for FPL until the City Manager agreed that FPL had done everything in its power to resolve the conflict.
- March 25, 2026. FPL had found and located its lines with a high-accuracy transponder and provided an engineered survey drawing. The developer's team was expected to need two to three weeks to work out whether the foundations had to be redesigned.
- April 22 and 28, 2026. The developer asked for as-built drawings of the city's stormwater structures nearby, and city staff sent them six days later.
- May 13, 2026. The developer promised a report on options within 30 days, and two commissioners asked the design team to look at over-water alternatives.
- August 21, 2026. The developer delivered a letter summarizing its independent consultant's findings.
- September 10, 2026. The City Commission directed staff to review the developer's findings. If the bridge proves infeasible, staff are to begin negotiating right away for an alternative path under the existing agreement. The Miami Beach Journal reported that the vote was unanimous.
The city first went to Kimley-Horn, which had done the peer review of the bridge design. Kimley-Horn declined, citing potential conflicts of interest. The city then turned to Stantec. As of the October 21 memo, Stantec was negotiating a proposal and the administration was weighing potential conflicts of interest that Stantec had raised before finishing the deal.
Three ways across, and what each requires
The proposed Stantec scope asks three questions in order. Here is how they line up against what the city has said about each path:
| Path | What it means | What the city says it requires |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge as designed | Build the bridge as designed despite the FPL conflict | Revised foundation design certified by the city's peer reviewer and under FDOT review for the structure permit |
| Workaround | Adjust the current configuration around the duct bank | The Stantec study, which could take 4 to 6 months if a solution turns up early |
| Alternative | A different route, with an over-water baywalk the main option discussed | The Stantec study, estimated at 9 to 12 months if the bridge is found infeasible, plus concept drawings for early talks with regulators |
The fall 2027 date only works if the first row holds. The longer study estimate is a year of analysis on its own, before any redesign is permitted.
Going under the causeway would mean going far out into the bay
The over-water idea came from a referral sponsored by Commissioner Matteo-Salinas, which the City Commission approved on March 18, 2026. From an engineering standpoint, the city calls a baywalk segment under the MacArthur Causeway "a simplified solution." The catch is headroom. To get enough clearance under the causeway, the walkway would have to reach about 300 feet or more into the bay, making the segment about 700 feet long.
Reaching that far from the seawall brings in a long list of reviewers. The memo names benthic surveys for seagrass and coral, and possible permitting challenges from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Miami-Dade County's Regulatory and Economic Resources Department. It says the process would likely take years. FDOT would also need to approve construction within its easement. The queen conch was recently listed as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. If queen conchs are in or near the project area, that would require consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and could limit when in-water work is allowed. The route would come near marked navigation channels, so the US Coast Guard may need to sign off. It would also need submerged land leases from the State of Florida and possibly easements from neighboring property owners whose riparian rights it could cross.
Then there is the cost. The city looked at the recently executed 1250 West Avenue development agreement, which valued baywalk segments at $35,000 to $40,000 per linear foot. At that rate, a 700-foot segment would cost $24.5 million to $28 million. The current agreement caps the city's share of the bridge at $10 million from the 2018 G.O. Bond, with the developer covering anything above that. The project also has a Florida Inland Navigation District grant of about $3 million. That grant agreement would need an amendment to change the project, and the city says it doesn't know whether that is possible.
Even at the low end, the over-water route costs about two and a half times the city's capped share, and part of the existing funding may not carry over to it. Before any of that can be tested with regulators, the city says it needs concept drawings.
The walks on either side, as they stand this fall
The gap is at 5th Street, and both sides have changed in the meantime. On the north side, the baywalk behind the Mondrian Hotel and Mirador condominiums at 1000 to 1200 West Avenue was finished and opened to the public. City staff reported that at the March 25, 2026 committee meeting. On the south side, the regular routine is the same, and a few events and proposals are coming up:
- South Pointe Park at 1 Washington Avenue is open daily from sunrise to sunset. It has beach access, a bark park, a playground, fitness equipment and a water feature.
- The French Market South Pointe returns to the park on Sundays, November 1 and November 22, from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.
- Canopy Park at 701 West Avenue, between the 600 and 700 blocks of Alton Road, is open sunrise to sunset. It has an enclosed playground and dog park, an outdoor fitness area and an art feature. TCH 500 Alton gave the 3-acre park to the city, and it opened on May 16, 2022 with its MONSTRUM playground, Community Newspapers reported.
- Evening lighting is still a proposal. A City Manager memo dated June 17, 2026 asked a committee to evaluate brighter Beachwalk lighting south of Fifth Street, especially west of South Pointe Pier, and recommended considering the cost in the FY2027 budget. A separate agenda item proposes better lighting at the Dog Park at 201 2 Street as an FY2027 budget priority. No installation date has been given.
The next sign of the bridge's timeline will be whether the city signs a contract with Stantec, because both study clocks, 4 to 6 months or 9 to 12, start only after that. The bridge has a standing monthly item before the Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee, and the memos prepared for the October 21 meeting set out the over-water costs and the consultant search.
At Vella Real Estate, we follow projects like the 5th Street bridge because they shape how a block works day to day, from the morning dog walk to a Sunday at the market. If you'd like to talk through how the bayside connections on either side of 5th Street affect the buildings you're considering, book an appointment with Andrea and we'll go through it together.
