Construction of a new pedestrian bridge connecting Florida International University's Modesto A. Maidique Campus to a nearby residential area will begin next month, FIU officials said Tuesday.
The announcement comes more than six years after the catastrophic collapse of a pedestrian bridge — then under the construction — near the west Miami-Dade campus that killed six people.
The National Transportation Safety Board faulted the firms involved in the project and FIU for failing to act once extensive cracking appeared during bridge construction. The agency said they should have halted work and shut down the road beneath it before the concrete span smashed eight cars on March 15, 2018. Ten other people were injured in the disaster.
The Florida Department of Transportation took direct control of the project from FIU after the collapse and plans to build a $38 million, 290-foot-long footbridge over eight lanes of heavy traffic on Southwest Eighth Street. Funding comes from the federal government, the state and a federal transportation grant assigned by FIU to FDOT.
FIU officials, , said the pedestrian bridge is in response to a need for "safer passage" between the university and the residential area that is home to a growing number of FIU students. Enrollment tops 54,000 students and more than 5,000 students live in Sweetwater, which is located across the main campus off Southwest Eighth Street.
The construction will force the rerouting of traffic along the busy thoroughfare, say FIU officials. The bridge is expected to open in the fall of 2026.
A is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday to discuss the project. The meeting can be attended virtually or in person. It will be 250 SW 114th Avenue, Miami, 33174.
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