City staff say closing Alton Road's flooded outer lanes wouldn't stop wakes swamping homes

Closing only the flooded outer lanes of Alton Road during storms would do little to keep passing cars from pushing water into homes between 43rd and 63rd streets, Miami Beach staff told the City Commission in a memo for its Nov. 18 meeting.

Residents along that stretch told Commissioner Tanya Bhatt that when water pools in the outside lanes, vehicles moving through it, especially at speed, send waves that “swamp” neighboring homes, the memo says. Bhatt, with Commissioner Alex Fernandez as co-sponsor, asked whether the city could block those lanes during flooding. The item (R9 W) has been on four agendas since June without being reached.

The memo lists the staff’s concerns:

• Losing the outer lanes would cut capacity on a main north-south route and could worsen storm traffic.
• Stalled cars already block lanes in heavy flooding, which can make it hard or impossible for emergency vehicles to get through.
• Police told staff that closing whole flooded stretches and sending traffic to Pine Tree Drive and Collins Avenue has worked best in severe floods, but that officers may be stretched too thin to set up and enforce partial closures.
• The city doesn’t keep many barricades, so closures could cover only a few spots.
• Alton Road is State Road 907, so any lane closure would need the Florida Department of Transportation’s approval.

The memo also points to a state law that already bars driving through a flooded street fast enough to create an excessive wake, and says FDOT has identified Alton Road from 43rd Street to Allison Road for reconstruction, elevation, drainage and pump station work.

A presentation attached to the item lists the days with the most flooding complaints on that stretch. The top was June 13, 2024, with 16 complaints on Alton Road and 24 on Alton and North Bay roads combined.

At a June committee meeting, members asked staff to compare complaints with storm data and draft a response plan that could be switched on in storms, including staffing, monitoring and public alerts. The memo asks the commission for direction. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive.