The Florida Department of Transportation in 2017 had a dream: for $802 million, South Florida would by now have a smoothly flowing interchange where three of its busiest roadways meet, accented by a glorious, 1,000-foot-long “signature” bridge over Biscayne Boulevard – all of it completed in just four years, by 2021.
Now it is a bridge of broken dreams, with a completion date – for now – of 2029, and the joint venture chosen by FDOT to lead the project claiming in lawsuits design errors and defective concrete have cost it more than $400 million.
That unfinished signature bridge – dubbed “The Fountain” by its builders – is so far spewing just yearslong delays and millions of dollars in legal battles over who is to blame and who should pay for it…