South Florida has a few more cars, but they won’t be adding to traffic or lengthening anyone’s commute.
Last month, crews lowered 22 life-sized, marine-grade concrete cars into the ocean, several hundred feet off South Beach.
Ximena Caminos, REEFLINE founder and artistic director said:
"So right now behind us, we're watching a 154-feet-long barge called Charlie Angels that is currently deploying car number six of 22, a total of 22 marine grade concrete cars designed by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich. This is the first installation of an underwater sculpture park slash hybrid reef running parallel to the shores in Miami Beach at 800 feet offshore and 20 feet deep."
The car sculptures, commissioned by the nonprofit group REEF-LINE, will soon be seeded with 2,200 native corals that have been grown in a nearby Miami lab.
REEFLINE Director of Science Colin Foord said:
"We are going to effectively create a forest of soft corals that are growing over this traffic jam, which I think really lends to the depth of the artistic message itself of having a traffic jam of cars underwater. So nature's going to take back over, and we're helping by growing the soft corals. We've sourced the soft coral from a nearby natural reef. So we know that these Gorgonians are able to survive in the area. We know that they're gonna thrive on the cars. And we know that they're going to be resilient given that they survived the 2023 bleaching event that affected a lot of the Florida corals."
Caminos says that this installation is the first of its kind anywhere:
"I think we are making history here, it's one of a kind, it is pioneering underwater reef that's teaming up with science, teaming up with art. And I think that we could potentially be, we won't solve the world's problems, but we are trying to show that the city with a problem, that is Miami Beach, ground zero, sea level rise, such a fragile ecosystem can also be the city of a solution. And we can show how creatively, collaboratively, and interdisciplinary we can all tackle a man-made problem with man-maid solutions."
The project is partially funded by a $5 million city of Miami Beach bond, but the group is trying to raise $40 million to extend the potentially 11-phase project along the full 7-mile length of coastline.
