MIAMI — The Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys was considered an engineering marvel when it opened in 1982.
For 40 years, the span along the Overseas Highway has offered breathtaking views for people driving to and from Marathon in the Middle Keys. If you’re heading to Key West by car, it’s the only way to get there.
“It’s one of the wonders of the world,” the late Keys commissioner Wilhelmina Harvey said at the dedication of the second Seven Mile Bridge, actually 6.79 miles, and accompanying Miami-to-Keys water pipeline.
That bridge, which connects Marathon in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys, replaced the original Seven Mile Bridge, built in 1912. That was another marvel, too, and originally part of pioneer Henry Flagler’s train service and serving as the longest — and most iconic — link of his Florida East Coast Railway.
Now, another bridge could be in the works.
This week, Monroe County leaders said a replacement for the 40-year-old Seven Mile Bridge could be coming by early next decade.
A new bridge is slated to come after projects scheduled in the Florida Department of Transportation’s “5-year tentative work plan” for the Keys. It’s a series of jobs, including repairing and rehabilitating the current bridge, scheduled to begin between 2024 and 2028, paid for by $498 million in Florida Department of Transportation funds, said county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood.
Replacement of the bridge “is slated for 2030,” Livengood said in a statement Wednesday.
According to an FDOT slide presentation provided to the county, the estimated cost of the project is $677 million. The construction cost for the existing bridge was $42 million in the 1980s, according to Keys historian Jerry Wilkinson.
Tish Burgher, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Transportation’s District Six, which includes the Keys, said the “project development and environmental study” phase of the project is tentatively scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2023.
That stage of the project is likely to take two to three years, Burgher said, after which engineers will begin designing the new bridge.
“The PD and E and Design phases are funded, and [FDOT] is currently seeking construction funds,” Burgher said in an email to the Miami Herald/FLKeysnews.com.
A new bridge would likely be stronger than the current Seven Mile Bridge, which was smoother, wider and higher than the one it replaced. The ends of the old bridge were eventually converted for recreational use.
Replacing the Seven Mile Bridge isn’t the only major Florida Keys road project on Monroe County’s and FDOT’s agenda, Livengood said.
There are also plans to replace the Long Key Bridge, the Keys’ second longest bridge, beginning in 2027. Also in the plans are major repairs to the Bahia Honda Bridge in 2025, and the replacement of two small bridges on Card Sound Road over Tubby’s Creek and Mosquito Creek, respectively, also in 2025, Livengood said.
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