The meeting held on April 16th at MBPD Headquarters was attended by

Mayor Phillip Levin and other City Officials
Chief Daniel J. Oats (MBPD)
Virgil Fernandez – Fire Chief
Sergeant Luis Sanchez – MB Marine Patrol
Lt. Lockart – US Coast Guard
County Officials

Main Points of the Meeting:

US Coast Guard has ultimate decision on whether to Lockdown the Bridge not the City or the County. Originally, the Coast Guard intended to open the bridge on demand for emergency vehicles, whether or not they were responding to an emergency. The City, County and residents want a 100% complete lockdown. In previous meetings with the Coast Guard the City tried to get a 100% shutdown. The resulting compromise was that the Coast Guard agreed to limit East Bridge openings to “Blue Light Emergencies” meaning vessels that are actually responding to a call for Search & Rescue, Sinking Vessels, Medical Emergencies etc.

The Coast Guard is unwilling to exclusively use West Bridge for Emergencies because, according to them, it will add 15 minutes to the Response Time. This claim was met with a great deal of skepticism.

The City of Miami Beach Police and Fire Departments have assured us that should the East Bridge get stuck during West bridge construction, they have plans in place to ensure the safety of the residents on the Islands. An important aspect of the plan is that the Coast Guard has agreed to provide prior notification to the city prior to any emergency opening of the East Bridge. This will give the Miami Beach Fire Department time to dispatch a pumper truck to the causeway. The opening of the bridge will be delayed until the fire truck arrives (typically 4 to 6 minutes). This insures that we will have a fire truck on our islands should the bridge get stuck. The police already have a policy of keeping a police car stationed on our islands. In addition the Miami Beach Marine Patrol can provide emergency transportation of fire and rescue crews to our islands. The city of Miami has a fireboat on call which can respond to fire emergencies. The Miami Dade Fire Rescue helicopter is on call, and can land on our islands for a medical evacuation. If the helicopter can’t land, the Coast Guard has a helicopter which can provide medical evacuation without landing.

Residents raised their concerns regarding these contingency plans and the response times it will add for eventual emergencies as well as the inconvenience of the bridge malfunction which as we have all witnessed is bound to happen. The overall feeling of residents was that we needed to strike a balance between marine safety and land safety. Locking down the bridge is at most a few minute delay for some marine responses. If the bridge gets stuck open, the delays for land based emergency response will be longer.

The overall desire of residents is for us not to need these extraordinary measures.

The City agrees with residents and would like the bridge to be Completely Locked Down. However the city has no control over whether the bridge is allowed to open. Should the bridge be allowed to open (despite requests from the City to lock it down), the city assures us that these extraordinary contingency plans will keep us safe. While response times may not be as fast as if the bridge were passable, they will be the fastest possible.

The City has promised to meet again with the Coast Guard to try to convince them to approve a complete lockdown similar to the situation during the 1998 Bridge Reconstruction.

Lt. Lockart from Coast Guard was unaware of the 1998 bypass bridge which was an effective lockdown. He promised to bring the information back to the Coast Guard. He also agree to verify the 15 min additional response time by going through the west bridge. The Marine Patrol mentioned that their boats can travel up to 65MPS. Detouring through the West Bridge is at most a 4 mile delay which suggests that the Coast Guards estimates are off by about 400%. The 4 mile estimate is worst case, typically the additional distance to a vessel in distress will be less. Lt. Lockart agreed to get back to us with supporting evidence for the Coast Guard’s 15 minute delay estimate.

A representative of the County was at the meeting and talked about the mechanical and electrical issues with the bridge. The county had requested that the openings for pleasure craft be immediately limited to twice a day. Once West Bridge construction starts, the County would like to 100% lock down the bridge, and use the time to perform extensive repairs to the bridge’s electrical system.

After the West Bridge construction is complete, the County hopes to perform needed upgrades to the mechanical systems of the East Bridge.

The County announced that West Bridge construction is anticipated to begin around June 1. The westernmost section of the bridge (including the pilings) will be completely removed. The bridge section will be rebuilt from scratch. The new section should match the current section is terms of looks and dimensions.

The Miami Beach Marine Patrol had a couple of requests for residents:

1) The would like everyone on the water to post their house number so it is visible from the water. Ideally there should be coordination, so everyone uses the same style sign in a similar location.

Having your address visible form the water is a tremendous help to the Marine Patrol when responding to a particular address. We have requested specifications from Marine Patrol and will relay them as soon we have them.

2) If the Marine Patrol needs to respond to a dry lot (a home not on the water), they need to pass through an easement, or someone’s side yard. They are looking for people on the water to volunteer their homes to be used as an access route to the dry lots. When responding to an emergency on a dry lot, their preference is to use an easement, or a home previously volunteered. If there is no appropriate easement or volunteer, they will fallback to using the best route available.

Please contact Sargent Luis Sanchez if you are willing to allow access through your property LuisSanchez@miamibeachfl.gov