An agreement that is pivotal to upgrading or replacing the deteriorated Bear Cut Bridge that is the only connector of Key Biscayne to the rest of Miami-Dade won unanimous county commission approval last week. The vote formalized the county’s obligation to do a study based on national environmental policy that is a requisite for any federal funding going to the bridge work. “The bridge continues, unfortunately, to deteriorate,” commissioners were told by Stacy Miller, the county’s director of the Department of Transportation and Public Works, but it “it’s not unsafe in any way, shape or form.” “Once a bridge essentially drops to a certain bridge rating number [as the Bear Cut Bridge has], you start a project development and environmental study so that you are prepared to do a replacement in time,” she said. “The bridge is functionally obsolete and there are some structural deficiencies.” The vote that commissioners passed “commits to the process,” Ms. Miller said. “It includes the no-build option, the repair option, and multiple replacement options.” The study, she said, sets up the project for federal resources and the federal permits that are needed for bridge work on a navigable waterway. Efforts to replace the bridge have been ongoing. The last major repairs in 2014 were expected to keep the bridge functional for 10 more years. Residents of Key Biscayne have long been concerned about the impact if a storm or disaster were to destroy the weakened bridge. Work to rehabilitate or replace the bridge on the Rickenbacker Causeway could cost $60 million to $100 million, a public meeting on the project was told in April 2025. Tolls collected from causeway users are expected to fund most work on the bridge. The 2025 meeting was told that the county development team was also exploring grants and bond funding to support bridge redevelopment. How to upgrade or replace the deteriorating bridge has been debated since the last major work on the bridge, which was originally built in 1944. There is no clear timeline for bridge work after the study is completed. Bridge development is a multiagency partnership among federal, state and county agencies, with the county transportation and public works department working with the Florida Department of Transportation’s Office of Environmental Management, the US Coast Guard, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In the 2025 public meeting, the county department told residents about preliminary findings of the Bear Cut Bridge development study, a necessary phase of the county’s redevelopment plan for the bridge. This redevelopment is part of the Rickenbacker Causeway Master Plan, the county’s initiative to redevelop the entire Rickenbacker Causeway. Constructed as a two-lane bridge, the Bear Cut Bridge has been widened in 1983 and again in 2014, and is now 103 feet wide. It has had numerous costly repairs. Ms. Miller told commissioners last week that repairs will continue while major bridge work is being contemplated. Concerns over rising sea level projections will have a potential impact on whether the county enhances the old bridge or develops a new one. The post Bear Cut Bridge upgrade takes another step forward appeared first on Miami Today. ...read more read less