The Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners voted Tuesday to defer a request for the Florida Department of Transportation to open the bridge at Northwest 154th Street in Miami Lakes.
The postponement will delay county action for two weeks until its next meeting on March 15.
Both Hialeah Mayor Steve Bovo and Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid addressed commissioners during their meeting.
The delay, which the commission approved in a unanimous vote, will give Cid and Bovo time to continue negotiations about opening the span that crosses Interstate 75 and links the two municipalities.
Hialeah wants its residents to have access to Miami Lakes schools and the Palmetto Expressway while the town is concerned about the traffic coming from the residential communities along Northwest 97th Avenue, where there is also an industrial park.
The item was presented at the meeting by Commission Chair Jose “Pepe” Diaz. He said he was “fed up” about the years of conflict over the bridge.
“If there is a lawsuit, all bets are off,” Diaz said, referring to the legal stalemate about the bridge at Northwest 170th Street.
“170th is a non-starter,” Diaz said. “That bridge needs to be open.”
The northern span is the subject of litigation by the town against the county, Hialeah, Lennar Corporation and its contractor, Downrite Engineering.
A Feb. 16 opinion by the Third District Court of Appeal determined that the town’s lawsuit which a county judge had previously dismissed was worthy to be heard.