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Little Havana 'Blue Street' pilot nearly complete; city adds trees, porous pavement to reduce flooding and heat
Summary
The Office of Resilience and Sustainability reported the near completion of a Blue Street demonstration on Southwest 3rd Street near José Martí Park in Little Havana, adding roughly 20 trees (about a 70% increase in canopy on the block) and installing structural soil, porous concrete sidewalks and porous asphalt parking stalls to test flood- and heat‑mitigation techniques.
Sonja Brubaker, the City of Miami's chief resilience officer, updated the committee on a Blue Street demonstration project on Southwest 3rd Street (between SW 4th and SW 5th Avenues, by José Martí Park) that ran from June through August and is almost finished.
Brubaker said the pilot added roughly 20 trees and increased tree coverage on the demonstration block by approximately 70 percent. She described the engineering details: structural soil to support tree roots in urban conditions, porous concrete for sidewalks and porous asphalt in parking spaces to reduce runoff and help mitigate urban heat‑island effects. "We have increased tree coverage by over 70%," Brubaker said, and said the project is intended as a demonstration to show co‑benefits for heat and flooding reduction.
Committee members asked for photos and technical details that could be shared publicly and suggested open‑sourcing methods so other municipalities and private developers could adopt similar solutions. Brubaker said the team will bring before‑and‑after photos and cost/implementation details to a future meeting.
