Parking lot drainage infrastructure isn’t anyone’s idea of a glamorous issue.
But if you’ve ever walked from your parking spot to a building after a South Florida downpour and felt like you needed a snorkel and fins, you know why it matters.
The Graham Companies has a number of improvements planned for Main Street. First, though, they’re tackling a problem many people have noticed: parking lots that don’t drain well.
If you’ve visited Main Street recently, you’ve probably seen the work in the lots near the Arbor Place building and the CMX Cinema 13 Miami Lakes. Some of those lots are fully or partially closed for now. The Graham Companies executive leading the project says the inconvenience will be worth it once the lots drain better and stay drier, even in a rainstorm.
“We’re adding drainage infrastructure to handle today’s weather, and the future’s,” said Laura W. Ratliff, president of Graham Commercial.
The project costs more than $4 million and is the most significant upgrade to these roughly 40-year-old lots since they were built. Besides new drainage, it includes raising the lots so they slope properly, repairing uneven pavement and broken curbs, adding updated lighting and improving the landscaping. The work also brings the lots in line with current ADA accessibility standards, so they’re safer and easier to get around for everyone.
The work is being done in phases, and Ratliff expects it to be largely finished by the end of the year or early 2027. When it’s done, she said, residents and visitors will notice a big difference.
“When it’s a rainy day, you can leave your rain boots at home,” she said.
Some of the most visible changes involve the lots’ trees.
“Removing any of these trees was a hard decision. We planted many of them years ago, and they’re part of the character of Miami Lakes,” Ratliff said. “But our first responsibility is making sure Main Street is a safe place for everyone who visits.”
Over time, the trees’ roots had become the source of many of the lots’ safety problems. They cracked and lifted the asphalt and curbs, creating tripping hazards, and damaged the drainage structures underneath. When crews dug up the old drainage system, they found much of it destroyed by roots and packed with dirt, so it no longer worked at all. Many of the trees had also outgrown their planting areas, which left their roots too cramped to keep growing in a healthy way.
Before work began, project leaders walked the site with an arborist and marked only the trees whose removal was considered absolutely necessary. Every other tree was kept.
When the project is complete, more trees will have been planted than were removed. The new trees were chosen with more care, both in which species were selected and where they were planted, so they have room to grow and stay healthy for decades without damaging the pavement or infrastructure.
“We wanted to make sure the next generation of trees on Main Street can thrive here for the long term,” she said.
The Graham Companies has more improvements planned around Main Street, and Ratliff said to stay tuned. But sometimes the unglamorous work has to come first.
“There’s a time to reinvest in infrastructure,” she said. “And our time is now.”