Port of Miami Tunnel - Overview

Overview

The Port of Miami Tunnel project involves the design and widening of the MacArthur Causeway by one lane in each direction leading up to the tunnel entrance, the relocation of Parrot Jungle Trail, and the reconstruction of roadways on Dodge Island. The tunnel itself will have two side by side tubes carrying traffic underneath the cruise side of the Government Cut shipping lane. Jacobs Engineering Group is responsible for the design of the roadways, Langan Engineering & Environmental Services is the geotechnical engineer, and Bouygues is the prime contractor for the tunnel project itself. Chosen due to their key involvement in the construction of the Channel Tunnel, a major tunnel in Europe, the selection of Bouygues was also met with controversy and protested by the Cuban exile community in Miami, due to the company's involvement with locally opposed construction projects in Cuba.

The project will connect the east/west Interstate 395 (I-395)/Florida State Road 836, which terminates into State Route A1A at the Miami city limit on the MacArthur Causeway, as well as Interstate 95 directly to the Port of Miami. The port is currently only connected to the mainland by Port Boulevard, which is accessed by crossing US Route 1 (Biscayne Boulevard) and traveling through downtown. The project also includes roadway improvements to the connection between I-395 and Florida State Road 836, also known as the Dolphin Expressway, at Interstate 95. The tunnel will allow heavy trucks to bypass the congested Downtown Miami area, which is considered to be especially crucial with the large increase in trade traffic expected to be created by the Deep Dredge Project and the enlargement of the Panama Canal. Projected to carry 26,000 vehicles a day under Government Cut through a pair of tunnels that would each be two lanes wide, the top of the tunnel will lie a minimum of 60 feet (18.3 m) below the seabed. In addition, the tunnel project is expected to create 400 to 600 direct jobs, and, hand in hand with the Deep Dredge and Panama Canal Expansion, over 30,000 jobs in the long run. Project executives have promised that many of the construction jobs will go to local contractors.

Nearly 16,000 vehicles travel to and from the Port of Miami through downtown streets each weekday. Truck traffic makes up 28% (or 4,480) of this number (Source: 2009 PB Americas Traffic Study). In 2010 it was estimated that around 19,000 vehicles traveled to the port daily and that only 16% were trucks. Existing truck and bus routes restrict the port's ability to grow, drive up costs for port users and present safety hazards. They also congest and limit redevelopment of the northern portion of Miami's Central Business District.

The Port of Miami Tunnel includes providing a direct connection from the Port of Miami to highways via Watson Island to I-395 and, along with the deep dredge, keeping the Port of Miami, the County's second largest economic generator (after Miami International Airport), supporting over 11,000 jobs directly with an average salary of $50,000, a competitive player in international trade. The Port of Miami provides 176,000 jobs, $6.4 billion in wages and $17 billion in economic output. (Source: 2007 Port of Miami Economic Impact Study).