New bridge to benefit student pedestrians

Amanda Delgado / Contributing Writer

[Featured image is a model of the new bridge]

In attempt to make transportation not only easier to students, but to the community, a new pedestrian bridge, sidewalks and plazas will connect the City of Sweetwater with Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

Set to be built by 2018, the bridge was first proposed in 2011.

“We had submitted twice but were turned down, not because it was a bad project, but because there was limited funding,” said Kenneth Jessell, FIU senior vice president for Finance and Administration and chief financial officer.

A partnership between MMC, who completed to FIU Football Stadium Expansion, and FIGG Bridge Engineers will finalize the designs of the bridge. The bridge will link Sweetwater with the northern entrance of FIU over Southwest Eighth Street. Improvements will also be made to the entrances of MMC and to the 109 Avenue area in Sweetwater.

The $15 million project will receive a $11.4 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant (also known as the TIGER Grant), with additional funding coming from the Florida Department of Transportation, City of Sweetwater and FIU.

However, the bridge is just one part of a three part project.

“The bridge is a big part because it is so visual, but the other parts – the Informed Travel Program and Applications and the community transit, are equally as important,” said Jessell.

Construction of the bridge will cause Eighth Street to be closed for one night. Aside from that, traffic will face minimal impact. The 300 foot long bridge will also feature panther shaped benches, security cameras and a lighting system. A plaza will be constructed on the Sweetwater side of the bridge, where it is hoped will feature festivals and vending carts, among other things.

“I’m personally down for the idea,” said Esteban Ortega, a psychology major at FIU.

He said, “University of Miami had one built to help the students reach the school without having to worry about the traffic and I remember hearing positive feedback from the students. For busy streets, like Eighth Street, I believe it would be a big help as it allows students to reach the campus and avoid any possible accidents. It’s safe.”

The bridge itself will cost approximately $12 million. The community transit will cost about $350,000 and will include one new transit vehicle; ten transit vehicles will be going between FIU, Sweetwater and other areas.

Transit services are to be extended from FIU to Dolphin Mall and, potentially, to some government buildings or close-by areas that students, faculty, staff and the residents of Sweetwater may need to go to.

Ideally, the community transit portion of the project will create a quality program for the community that will tie with Miami-Dade Transit. This means that there are attempts to bring local buses that are currently on the east-side of campus on 107th to PG 6.

“I think the new additions will be rad for commuting. I would like that,” said Stephanie Ojeda, a criminal justice major at FIU. “It’s actually really beneficial for me since there’s no easy way – other than driving –  that I know of to get to those places from campus. It also means I have more a variety of places to go.”

Attempts to create an air-conditioned area near the bus stop at PG6 will be made, and the possibility of creating a convenience store, newspaper stand or food venue are also in the works.

The third part of the project consists of an ITPA system, which will cost about $2.4 million. This includes “smart transit opportunity traffic.” This system could save users time, giving them suggestions on when to get off on their bus route to join an alternative one.

From FIU, the system can be used to tell those using the bus the time their bus will get there.

ITPA started to be implemented when FIU parking decals were replaced with a system that recognizes license plates. The parking count system is also receiving some tweaking.

“The counts that we have by spaces, eventually that technology is going to be an extent that you would be able to actually know where the space is, or where spaces are,” said Jessell.

“So you can get an update on your phone, that would be verbal so you’re not looking at it while you’re driving, [that says] there are 15 spots in over in [PG] 6 or there are 15 spots in Red Garage. So you now know where to go for parking,” he said.

The official groundbreaking of the project will occur next month, with construction beginning in the next three months; however, construction of the bridge will probably not occur until the end of the year since there are still issues related to soil testing, power lines as well as drawings and planning of the bridge.

Right now, only 30 percent of the drawings have been made. Getting to 100 percent takes time because drawings are under constant review by the U.S. Department of Transportation and FDOT.

“We wanted it to be from the very beginning a signature bridge, because we could’ve easily put in a box bridge…just to get across. We wanted it to be a continuation of the City of Sweetwater and FIU,” said Jessell. “I’m pretty excited about it.”

[image by taken by Amanda Delgado]

3 Comments on "New bridge to benefit student pedestrians"

  1. Hey guys, just wanted to see why the proposal was denied in 2011. Why did it take so long for this idea to get approved? Seems like this would be more important than destroying our nature preserve to make room for more football fields. I guess it takes a car running over a pedestrian to ‘get funding’ for a project.

    #ButThatsNonOfMyBusiness

  2. DANIEL CANCINO | March 15, 2018 at 4:30 PM | Reply

    WHO IS REPONSABLE FOR THE COLLAPSE OF THE BRIDGE? WHY WAS NOT SUPORTED PROPERTLY?

  3. When one look at the photos, where it is getting positioned, it is visibly bowing down between the two moving jacks.
    Basically, it seems to be a single concrete deck. The roof is too thin to create rigidity.
    So, if it was intended to be suspended, what was supposed to keep it up, until the off center tower, and the suspension, was put into place?
    Someone must have committed a fatal error in the calculations.
    It needed support in the middle, untill being completed.
    Apparently, it simply cracked in the middle of the main deck, leading to the complete collapse.

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