Raising Alton Road to end flooding years from start

A project to raise Alton Road six inches to one foot to alleviate frequent flooding is well on its way as planning efforts reach their final 10%.

Construction is projected to run from 2026 to 2029.

Planning is estimated to wrap up in February and construction is due to start in the spring of 2026.

“The big gap there [between 2024 and 2026] is due to coordination with the City of Miami Beach,” said Kevin A. Lopez, who is running the project for the Florida Department of Transportation. “There’s ongoing projects on Collins and other adjacent areas to Alton that there’d be concern with overlapping construction. So we’ve looked to coordinate to push out our construction of Alton to not conflict with ongoing projects in other areas of the Beach.”

The road-raising work is estimated to take just under three years as these overlapping projects near Alton Road have been taken into consideration.

“This is, again, in coordination with the City of Miami Beach with respect to train construction,” Mr. Lopez said. “It’s one of the innovative methods in construction where we’re looking to reduce the impacts to the neighborhood and to the residents in this area. However, reducing the impacts does increase the duration of construction.”

The Alton Road project aims to improve the community. In addition to elevating the roadbed six inches to one foot, said Mr. Lopez, two new pump stations with outfalls and upgrades to the existing drainage from Michigan to Chase Avenue will be added and the northbound lanes will be widened near the Miami Beach Golf Club at 2301 Alton, which will accommodate bidirectional bicycle traffic and a sidewalk adjacent to the golf course on the east side of Alton.

Nearby residents are looking forward to elevation of the roadways as they’ve suffered from flooding. In addition, a crossing is being proposed to facilitate pedestrians’ access to the golf course and the shared-use bike-pedestrian path.

“We definitely have heard back positive feedback after doing public outreach to the neighborhoods as far as the resiliency improvements and preventing flooding of the homes during a recent – it wasn’t a direct hurricane, but there was extreme weather by one of the tropical storms that had passed by and that we had resulting pictures from residents of flooding in their homes, so they’re really excited for these improvements and for preventative measures of tidal flooding and rain event flooding along this corridor,” said Mr. Lopez.

“Also, we’ve heard from the public, in addition to the shared-use path, was the desire for a crossing to access the golf course and the shared-use path, so we are proposing on West 23rd Street a crossing that doesn’t exist today. That would make access to the golf course and the shared-use path a lot easier and would allow residents to cross Alton safely without having to get in their cars to cross.”

Although residents are eager for improvements, they’re concerned about area landscaping. However, there is a plan to address these concerns and focus on landscaping, Mr. Lopez said.

“We do right to provide the resiliency improvements and drainage infrastructure,” said Mr. Lopez. “Many of the trees will need to be replaced or relocated. However, we have committed to $1 million per mile that is specific to landscaping. That is to be introduced as a standalone landscaping project. That is to immediately follow the roadway improvements that are to replace the landscape in this area that’s being impacted.”

This landscaping project, still in early stages, is to follow the Alton Road improvements.

“It’s [the landscaping project] in conjunction with this project,” said Mr. Lopez. “However, since it’s to immediately follow design work, we were starting the early coordination efforts for the landscaping project. However, the design of that is slated for next year.”

“The construction for that is slated for 2028 or would follow the wrapping up of the roadway construction project,” Mr. Lopez said, “so it’s still early on for that project. But we’re starting the early coordination as part of this project to determine with the City of Miami Beach what they have in their master plan as far as for landscaping in this area, and making sure that we are in line with it.”

For now, the community is getting ready to welcome the Alton Road project and all of its improvements.

“I think the shared-use path, especially that existing today there is no pedestrian-bicycle facility on the east side of Alton, I think that is a great addition to the corridor and to the community, as well as with that crossing. We’ve heard a lot of concerns of the community as far as for safety and pedestrian access of crossing Alton,” said Mr. Lopez. “Especially for the community and those that live on Alton and access it every day, I think those are the two biggest benefits of this project.”