Miami-Dade may privatize two causeways and replace Key Biscayne’s Bear Cut Bridge

Miami-Dade commissioners on Thursday advanced a privatization plan for a pair of toll bridges connecting Key Biscayne and Miami Beach to the mainland, an effort that would generate new dollars for replacing another bridge once flagged as too weak to survive a major hurricane.

The proposal would let a for-profit company manage the Venetian and Rickenbacker causeways and use toll revenue to fund maintenance and improvements, including a replacement for Bear Cut Bridge, which connects Key Biscayne with Virginia Key and then mainland Miami.

The county partially shut down the 1947 bridge in 2013 after engineers found “structural deficiencies” needing emergency repairs. A short-term repair project followed, but Miami-Dade still needs to replace the bridge.

Along with funding a new Bear Cut span, Miami-Dade will ask bidders to use toll money and other revenue to fund separated bike lanes on the Venetian and the Rickenbacker, one of the most popular cycling destinations in the county.

Multiple political hurdles remain for the effort, and Thursday’s unanimous vote only authorizes Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to solicit bids and proposals for the projects. Once the request for proposals becomes public, it would trigger a bidding contest that would eventually lead to a commission vote on awarding the contract.

Mike Davey, mayor of Key Biscayne, told commissioners he wanted bidders to have flexibility to propose different configurations of the causeway — a hint at the sensitivities ahead as the coastal community faces a major redo of its only road to the mainland.

“We very much support an accelerated program to build the new Bear Cut Bridge,” Key Biscayne Mike Davey told commissioners. “But we have concerns.”

There’s also the issue of toll increases to fund the improvements and profit margins for the developer. The Rickenbacker leads to a pair of parks — Florida’s Bill Baggs and Miami-Dade’s Crandon — that are popular with residents across Miami-Dade. “This is about making money,” said Commissioner Joe Martinez. “The tolls are going to go up.”

At the center of the effort is Bernard Zyscovich, the prominent architect who has been pushing toll revenue on the Rickenbacker as a way to fund his “Plan Z” for a new park and separated bike lanes along the scenic thoroughfare over Biscayne Bay. His plan stalled several years ago under the administration of then-mayor Carlos Gimenez, whose aides balked at advancing a proposal calling for tolls to more than double on the causeway.

Zyscovich and his new team, including former county parks chief Jack Kardys, submitted an updated proposal to the county in March that includes the Venetian Causeway, with financial backing from the the Swiss-based private equity firm Partners Group.

The Levine Cava administration endorsed the still-confidential proposal as financially viable, and recommended commissioners launch a bidding process for the Z Plan group and any competitors that also want to pursue the project.

Under that bidding process, all submissions would become public at the same time and well ahead of commission votes on the proposals.

A Levine Cava memo outlining the Z Plan submission carries few details, and it’s not known how much tolls would increase under the proposal.

The other revenue sources also aren’t known, such as restaurants or other for-profit uses on land around the causeways. Federal transportation grants could also be used to bring down the construction costs.

Florida’s Transportation Department is performing environmental studies for replacing the Venetian bridges, which the state said “exhibit severe deterioration because of their proximity to the very aggressive marine environment.”

The Levine Cava memo calls Plan Z “a compelling financial solution” to long-term bridge needs, replacement costs for Bear Cut and improving park amenities on both causeways.

Raquel Regalado, the commissioner whose district includes Key Biscayne, said Bear Cut remains the Miami-Dade bridge in the worst condition, where a failure would cut off the island community from Miami.

“Every time that our area has a tornado warning or a hurricane warning, I worry,” she said. “We patched it up 10 years ago. We’re throwing that money away... We need to do something.”