Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010 - 17

Up MuLTI-PROJECT FEaTuRE Member Firms tackle land development projects with innovation, ingenuity Kimley-Horn helped developers create a mixed-use housing and shopping destination on a formerly troubled downtown Miami site. Charlie Geer Resurrecting Miami’s Buena Vista Rail Yard nation, making it a health and environmental hazard. In 2002, Biscayne Development Partners (BDP) selected Kimley-Horn and Associates to develop a master plan for redeveloping the site. The goal: to create an urban mixed-use residential community with commercial, retail, office and entertainment facilities. In late 2002, BDP purchased the site from the railroad and brought in Developers Diversified Realty to develop the western portion of the property as a retail destination center, while BDP developed the eastern and central portions as residential and entertainment complexes. Kimley-Horn provided the environmental master plan and Brownfield Rehabilitation Plan and authored the urban master plan and streetscape design guidelines. The firm also planned and designed all public and private infrastructure, including roads; drainage, water and sewer systems; lighting; duct banks and telecommunications; traffic signals; and tracks for a future streetcar system. The key land engineering challenge was the environmental restoration of the property and its contaminated groundwater. “With only 18 months until the scheduled groundbreaking, we asked the state to designate the entire site as a brownfield site. With the approval of the Department of Environmental Resource Management, we were able to quickly address the site’s contaminated groundwater and soil remediation issues,” says Kimley-Horn Senior Vice President Charlie Geer. As much as 95 percent of soil remediation was accomplished by obtaining limited contamination-source removal and administrative control over contaminated areas. This included providing impermeable cover via building foundations, parking areas and roadways over highly contaminated areas. “These controls not only prevent direct contact with the contaminated soil, but also greatly reduce storm-water runoff and improve groundwater quality,” explains Geer. The rehabilitation included removing contaminated soil and replacing it with clean material and landscaped vegetation. The project has an estimated development value of $1.2 billion and has generated approximately 1,700 permanent jobs. It also received the EPA Region 4 2009 Phoenix Award, the nation’s most prestigious award for brownfield redevelopment. ENGINEERING INC. PROJECT: Midtown Miami, Miami FIRM: S Kimley-Horn and associates, Inc., Miami beach, Fla. ince the 1800s, the Buena Vista Rail Yard has played several roles in downtown Miami. It’s been a railroad maintenance yard and roundhouse, a steel fabricating facility, a gas pumping station, a fuel oil plant and a shipping container storage and repair facility. The site subsequently became an economic and aesthetic eyesore, plagued by poor upkeep and rampant drug activity. Its industrial legacy also resulted in years of neglected soil and groundwater contami- JaNuaRy / FEbRuaRy 2010

Engineering Inc. - January/February 2010

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