Page 22 - CRCCE0424

Mayor’s Message continued

Meanwhile, there are the developments with Miami.
A month or so ago, Chris Hodgkins, the head of the
concessionaire operating the Miami Tunnel, reached out to
my office inviting me to tour the facility in light of our ongoing
discussions. I then asked county leaders if they wanted to
join me.
The trip was enlightening. The Miami tunnel was built through
a public-private partnership between the Florida Department
of Transportation and a consortium of two international firms –
Meridiam and Bouygues.
It was the first ever P3 for FDOT and required the consortium
to design, finance, build, operate and maintain the port
tunnel. The deal has now been used internationally as a model
for P3 infrastructure projects.

The project was completed $90 million under its $1 billion
price tag and on time.
The tunnel would be shallow at 55 feet deep, thus not Hodgkins noted to the group that the Miami tunnel had to
requiring substantial digging. Brightline has reviewed the address resiliency concerns similar to the questions raised in
proposed gradient in the proposed tunnel and said that it is Fort Lauderdale. They built flood gates like those that BDO
acceptable for commuter traffic. has proposed and have used them multiple times during
The design keeps the tunnel entirely within the railroad’s hurricane warnings.
existing right-of-way except at the river itself, where it would Some have questioned the viability of tunnel construction
deviate slightly to avoid the pilings of the existing train bridge. in South Florida given the geotechnical dynamics here.
There would be the need to obtain the underground rights to But Hodgkins said the Miami tunnel was built through a
three small portions of property — two are owned by the city limestone base similar to that in Fort Lauderdale and that they
and the third is owned by a developer who is willing to work compensated for its porous nature by inserting polymer into
with us because of the substantial impact a bridge would have gaps to shore it up.
on his planned project.
He also addressed the issue of construction vibrations,
Some people have questioned the resiliency of a tunnel given the agreeing with BDO that the tunneling technology avoids that.
flooding and heavy rains experienced in the region. But BDO He said it was important to his project to avoid vibration so as
plans for that by installing major flood gates at each portal. to both protect structures like the Children’s Museum and not

Others question whether there would be vibration during disturb the animals at Jungle Island.
construction that could harm existing structures, but BDO Let’s hope that this progress continues and that we all can
notes that the tunneling technology they propose has been agree on a tunnel. We need to protect our vibrant downtown
used under highly developed locations such as Chinatown in and our historic district and that we do not further divide
San Francisco. communities as the train tracks long have.
BDO’s estimated price tag is $888 million, less than the $3 Here are some other recent developments in the city.
billion that other consultants suggested. While more than the
almost $600 million that the county estimates a bridge would Vacation rentals. Unfortunately, the Florida Legislature passed
cost, BDO says the difference likely could be made up through a proposal that would further limit the ability of cities across
new federal infrastructure grant funding. the state from regulating short-term rentals.
Also, BDO estimates that the operation and maintenance of As we have seen, these rentals can tremendously disrupt
the tunnel would cost $2.5 million a year. That’s one-tenth of neighborhoods with noise, traffic and garbage as tenants
what other consultants estimated. The Broward Metropolitan move in and out daily and weekly. The city needs to be
Planning Organization now acknowledges that the earlier able to impose well-reasoned regulations to protect the
estimate was very high because those consultants had more neighborhoods that we so love.
unknown factors to consider than BDO did.

20
20

3/18/24 7:01 PM
CRCCE 0424.indd 20 3/18/24 7:01 PM
CRCCE 0424.indd 20