Underline backers to hold sessions for public input

Residents will have a chance this week to publicly air their views of the proposed Underline, a plan that would turn the lightly used path beneath the elevated Metrorail tracks along U.S. 1 into downtown Miami into a bikeway and linear park.

There will be two-hour sessions at the Miami-Dade Main Library on Friday and at the Frost Museum of Science in Coconut Grove on Saturday to provide feedback to the project’s planning consultant, James Corner Field Operations of New York.

Field Operations planners will provide an overview of the concept and gather information on residents’ wishes, the Miami-Dade parks and transit departments said. The firm was selected by Friends of the Underline, the nonprofit group backing the scheme, to develop a master plan for the 10-mile-long trailway and design demonstration projects to be built at two Metrorail stations.

The Main Library meeting, at 101 W. Flagler Street, will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and focus on the Brickell portion of the path, from the Miami River to Southwest 26th Avenue.

The Frost Museum meeting, 3280 S. Miami Ave., will take place from 10 a.m. to noon and cover the section between Southwest 27th Road to LeJeune Road that includes the Vizcaya, Grove and Douglas Road stations.

An initial meeting covering the southern portion of the trail, through Coral Gables and South Miami from Lejeune to the Dadeland South station, was scheduled for Thursday evening.

The concept, developed by a group of activists, has gathered considerable momentum and political support but is not yet funded. Backers hope the two demonstrations projects will be under construction sometime next year.

This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Underline backers to hold sessions for public input."