Another bridge will get a colorful light display, this one in downtown Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale’s waterways will be shining bright as Broward County advances plans for several bridges to display colorful lights. The county soon may decide on costs to transform the Andrews Avenue bridge into an artful downtown showpiece.
County commissioners will decide next week whether to increase the tab of the project from $615,000 up to $670,000, due to rising costs, records show. The “lighting artwork will activate our riverfront by transforming the drawbridge that spans the New River between Las Olas Boulevard and South Fifth Street,” according to the Broward Cultural Division.
The Andrews Avenue Bridge is among a string of efforts by the county. Broward in December also approved a $6 million art project to transform the E. Clay Shaw Jr. Bridge, also known as the Southeast 17th Street bridge, into a shiny nighttime display, with the hope of bedazzling tourists. That bridge, farther south in the city, is located near the Broward County Convention Center and Pier Sixty-Six.
Plans for the Andrews Avenue bridge have been in the works for years. Documents show the display will be a lively one, featuring an “ever-changing” presentation whose lights will shimmer across the New River’s surface.
The county first chose an artist for the work in November 2020 for what was proposed to be a $490,000 project.
The artist withdrew, so artist Susan Narduli’s conceptual artwork design proposal was approved in April 2021.
The county upped the cost to $615,000 in September after the artist’s engineering team determined that the existing electrical supply was insufficient to power the design.
A month later, the artist told the county’s Cultural Division that the subcontractor’s bids for fabrication and installation of the artwork design were above the amount budgeted.
“However, the Cultural Division determined that the artist’s proposed modifications would diminish the impact of the artwork and were therefore not acceptable,” according to county records.
The proposed increase is due “to the escalating cost of fabrication and installation.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
