Coastal Engineering Archives

CGA designed and permitted an on-grade, ADA-accessible pathway that supports the use of pedestrians and cyclists and an integral component of the City’s overall resiliency and climate adaptation plan, directly supporting the City’s investment in strengthening the dunes for storm surge protection and by providing a critical component of its alternative transportation network. The project is a part of the greater Atlantic Greenway Network, and comprises a critical component of the bicycle facilities throughout the City of Miami Beach. It connects Indian Beach Park on the south to the North Beach Recreational Trail at Allison Park with a 2-mile paver walkway, continuing the City’s unique branding qualities.

The path was permitted in accordance with the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection’s and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s regulations, as the entirety of the project lies within State-owned lands. The scope of work included extensive public outreach, branding and site design, coastal engineering, dune planting plans, lighting design, and bidding and construction administration. The project connects business districts, cultural/tourism centers, parks, residential neighborhoods and the beaches, and it completed a major portion of the essential north-south connector of the AGN to facilitate pedestrian and non-motorized transportation throughout the City.

Sombrero Beach Park, located in the City of Marathon, has been for years the core of the City’s civic spaces. The park has been used for daily recreational uses as a beachfront park and for seasonal events, such as the City’s Fourth of July Celebration. Additionally, the beach park is a designated turtle nesting habitat, utilized by four predominant species of turtles. CGA was approached by the City and the Community of Marathon to redesign the park to expand its programming for recreational uses, enhance its environmental condition as a turtle nesting habitat, and provide new on-site amenities that were sensitive to the architectural character of the Florida Keys. More importantly, the redesign for the park preserved and strengthened the role the public space had with the aspects of the community’s identity. CGA expanded the program for the park to include extensive, walkable circuits for pedestrian use, children’s playground and play equipment, restroom facilities, new gateway and controlled access features, added picnic shelters, volleyball courts, and multiple-use open public spaces that lend themselves to the personalization of the park by the visitors. The design reestablished a beach dune habitat in a manner that would be conducive to the promotion of turtle nesting and the protection of the nests from tampering or neglectful destruction.