The Underline Miami Is Finally Usable: What's Open Now

"This is what it looks like when infrastructure puts people first," Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at a ribbon-cutting on May 27, 2026, standing on a stretch of pavement under the Metrorail tracks between SW 27th and SW 37th Avenue. The occasion was modest on paper: one more segment of a bike and pedestrian trail. But that segment did something the project hadn't managed in five years of construction. It made the Underline continuous for five miles straight, from the Miami River in Brickell to a spot in Coral Gables near the Douglas Road Metrorail station.

Here's the thing residents along this corridor should actually know: the Underline is not one project with one finish line. It is two different experiences right now, and the gap between them is not closing. If you live or work anywhere between Brickell and Coral Gables, you have a usable, programmed, five-mile linear park with a bikeshare system and a weekly calendar. If you're further south toward South Miami or Dadeland, you're watching a construction contract that just got extended again, with the county's own commissioners on record questioning the spending.

What You Can Actually Ride Right Now

The five continuous miles break down like this. Phase 1, called Brickell Backyard, opened back in February 2021 and covers a half mile from the Miami River to SW 13th Street. Phase 2 followed in April 2024, adding 2.14 miles that thread through the Roads, Shenandoah, and Silver Bluff neighborhoods on the way to SW 19th Avenue near the Vizcaya Metrorail station. Segment 4, the one that just opened in May, pushes the trail another chunk south to SW 37th Avenue, past the Douglas Road station in Coral Gables.

That last stretch is where a new dog park called Chewy Bark Park opened in February 2026, just south of the Douglas Road station near Ponce de Leon Boulevard. It has trees, turf, and hydration stations, and it sits close enough to a Trader Joe's that a walk with the dog and a grocery run can be the same trip.

Further north, the amenities are more built out because they've been there longer. The Brickell Backyard alone has four named sections: the River Room, a dog-friendly walking area along the riverfront; the Gym and Flex Court, with a half-court basketball setup, a mini soccer pitch, and a running track; the Promenade, which hosts a sound stage and a plaza for community programming; and the Oolite Room, home to four butterfly gardens that were the first of a planned twenty along the full corridor.

Grab a Bike Without Owning One

Since November 2025, you haven't needed your own bike to use any of this. Inter Bike, a bright-orange bikeshare fleet operated by Deco Bike Miami LLC, runs 125 pedal bikes across 10 stations at full deployment. The system is built on the Lyft Urban Solutions platform, which means renting is app-based: locate a bike, unlock it, ride, and the app tracks your time. Customers of the digital bank Inter get up to 60 minutes free every day, automatically unlocked in the app.

Right now, the network covers the ride from Brickell through Coconut Grove into Coral Gables. An extension to Dadeland is expected sometime in 2026, timed to whenever the final construction segment catches up. Until then, the bikeshare footprint quietly maps to the same line as the finished trail. Where the pavement stops, the stations stop too.

The Calendar Nobody's Advertising

The Underline isn't just infrastructure. It runs a working weekly schedule that most people driving past on US-1 have no idea exists.

• A Saturday afternoon market under the tracks in Brickell, running weekly through October 10, 2026, with local vendors selling produce, prepared foods, and artisan goods
• Free yoga at the Inter Stage in Brickell every Saturday, scheduled through December 2027
• A second free yoga session at Vizcaya Station Plaza on Thursdays, running through February 2027
• A community fitness class combining strength training with a guided group run, held on select days through October 18, 2026
• A monthly group run and walk on the third Wednesday of the month, through September 16, 2026

None of this requires a membership or an event fee. It requires knowing it's there, which is exactly the kind of detail that doesn't show up when you're just driving past a construction fence.

The Other End of the Line

Here's where the story gets less tidy. Phase 3, the final and longest segment, is supposed to run 7.36 miles from Vizcaya Station down to Dadeland South. Miami-Dade County awarded the construction contract back in October 2022, and the county's own project page still lists 2026 as the completion year.

But the paperwork tells a more complicated story. In July 2026, county commissioners approved a $2.25 million increase to the contract for construction, inspection, and engineering on this final leg, bringing the total contract with Calvin, Giordano & Associates to $8.25 million and extending the timeline another 270 days. Miami Today reported the vote on August 11, 2026.

Commissioner Oliver Gilbert, who has repeatedly pushed back on Underline spending, put it plainly during the vote:

"I understand it needs to pass, but fundamentally understand what we are doing. We're giving money to complete an asset that we're going to build that's going to be managed by someone else who is going to use those resources."

He was one of three commissioners who voted against the increase. County transportation director Stacy Miller told commissioners this would be the last extension request, tied to work described as "an active section of the Underline that is currently under construction." Whether that holds is worth watching, since the project's own cost history shows a pattern. In 2016, the total project was estimated at $100 million. By 2022, the county called it fully funded at $140 million. No updated total figure has been published since, even as individual contracts keep climbing.

Here's the comparison that matters if you're trying to figure out what to expect near you:

What This Actually Means If You Live Along It

If your daily radius runs through Brickell, the Roads, Silver Bluff, or up to Douglas Road in Coral Gables, the Underline already functions as a real amenity. You can bike to a Saturday market, walk a dog at a park that didn't exist a year ago, and catch a free yoga class without leaving the corridor. That's not a promise about the future. That's what's on the ground this month.

If you're closer to South Miami or the Dadeland corridor, the honest read is that the county's own contract history gives you reason to treat "2026" as a moving target rather than a date to circle. The extension approved in July, on top of the one before it, suggests the last stretch will take the time it takes.

Either way, knowing which side of that line you're on tells you more about your actual daily life here than a press release ever will.

If you're weighing what it means to live near a corridor like this, whether you already call Brickell or Coral Gables home or you're comparing what a five-minute walk to a linear park does for your routine, Dianna Lantigua Realty can talk through the specifics. Request a private consultation.