1640-35 Causeways Threat To Health
B ILL The Mid-Bay would plunge'
south from 14.7 miles, to
theMacArthur Causewa . Esti-
-
mates of its cost have ranged
from $20,000,000 to $35,000,000.
Tolls would be extracted from
RAGG S persons using the causeway.
This is quite a planting in the
j! UU bay. And it represents, at least,
Jcp?".) a threat to the health of the bay.
The ocean scientists at the
,.-.�— University of Miami,the Marine
O Laboratory, cannot tell an in-
- The Bay quiring reporter what a cause-
way down the middle of the bay
At the moment,the Bay would do to marine life or tidal
rof
Biscayne is latticed by flow.
"even causeways, four - The laboratories have recog-
more are proposed, and nition of knowing more about
someone wishes to plant the life of the bay than any oth-
• a dike across the heart er responsible source. If those
of the bay in front of scientists don't know what new
downtown Miami. "influences would be set loose in
Obviously what the bay needs the bay, how can the Metro
to protect herself is a good I planner, who put the" Mid-Bay
• lawyer. project on the new Land'Use
Of all the causeways existing Plan?
and proposed,
the most inter- Try A Model
esting is thee:
w What with all these causeways
known asbeing suggested, and a 12-mile
r Ba In the first , channel across the bay to the
jPproposed oil refinery, it would
'r.N place, no r up
of till ns ever seem intelligent to spend a
petitioned the little money and build a hy-
..4 Metro commis- draulic scale model of the bay.
sion for a cause- The model, simulating tides
way down the middle of the . and winds, could indicate what
would happen in hurricane tides
bay. and winds if a causeway, or.
In the second place, the Met- dike, were plaunked into the
ro commission has thumbed the bay.
idea out of the hall more than • The model, simulating tides
• once. and winds, could indicate what
It's Uninvited would happen in hurricane tides
and winds if a causeway, or
In the third place, the pro- dike, were plunked into the bay. I
posal for a Mid-Bay causeway • Also, would large areas of still
keeps re-appearing, uninvited, water, leading to death of ma-
like some ghost of Medieval rine life, be created? Would
times. the channel influence, and in
In 1959, the commission did • what way, the tidal flow?
think a causeway down the mid- These are unanswered quer-
• i dle of the bay might be a good tions.Indeed,the questions have
thing. The county signed a con- not even been asked at the offi-
tract with an engineering firm cial table.
from Mobile to design and over-
see construction of the cause-
way.
The ink was fresh upon the.
paper as a great howl descended
upon the courthouse from all
over the county. The commis-
sioners retreated. (The commis-
sioners also got the county in
a dandy lawsuit with the Mobile
firm, which is going to cost at
least a quarter of a million dol-
lars to settle on a breach of con-
tract.)
l