Construction
Work on the Port of Miami Tunnel project began on Watson Island and Dodge Island, including work on the MacArthur Causeway, in May 2010. Groundbreaking on the construction project was unannounced and considered secret, as the groundbreaking was scheduled for June 2010, but actually took place on May 24, 2010, without ceremony. The tunnel boring machine was built in Germany and had to be re-assembled in Florida after arriving in crates on the 168 metres (551 ft) cargo ship Combi Dock 1 on Thursday, June 23, 2011 and being assembled in the median of the causeway where the construction is taking place. Both directions of the MacArthur Causeway have remained open during the assembly of the machine except for nighttime lane closures and delays on the westbound side. The machine, which weighs more than 2,500 tons, was assembled in a 65-foot (20 m) deep pit known as the launching pad located in between two concrete walls in the median of the causeway, which only left a 42-foot (13 m) cutter visible from the road. According to NBC Miami, as of June 2011, 899 jobs had been created by the project, with over 70% being from the 305 area code (Miami-Dade County). The construction is projected to take 47 months, with the tunnel being finished in 2014. The French firm Bouygues Construction has been put in charge of operating the tunnel boring machine (nicknamed "Harriet"), which is longer than a football field, 540 feet (160 m) long, and over 40 feet (12 m) in diameter. It was used to bore two side by side 43 feet (13 m) diameter tunnels, one for each direction, each 3,900 feet (1.1 km) long. The tunnel boring machine itself cost $45 million and was custom built for the Port of Miami Tunnel Project by the German firm Herrenknecht. No explosives are said to be used on the construction of the tunnel. Drilling of the tunnel itself commenced in mid-November 2011, with the drilling machine beginning work on the Watson Island tunnel entrance. The first tunnel connecting Watson Island and the Port of Miami was completed in August of 2012., and the second tunnel was completed on May 9th, 2013 as as "Harriet" emerged back on Watson Island, where digging had commenced in 2011. The roadway construction should finish for an opening on May 15, 2014. The MacArthur Causeway, which currently has three traffic lanes in each direction and a sidewalk on the eastbound side, will be widened to four 12-foot (3.7 m) wide traffic lanes with a ten foot inner and outer shoulder, as well as a six foot sidewalk.
In July 2011, a competition to name the tunnel boring machine was sponsored by MAT and the FDOT, and carried out by the Girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida. The nickname "Harriet" was selected as the winner and the winning Troops 30, 134, and 1191 won iPod nanos.
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