Federal, county officials consider Miami River options

Federal, county officials consider Miami River options Officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Miami-Dade County are examining ways to move forward with a Miami River dredging project that has been stalled by a lack of federal funding since November 2005.
   Luis Rene Perez, the Corps of Engineers' project manager for the Miami River project, told the Florida Connection work is anticipated to resume in February or March, but the scope of the work will not be known until both federal and county funding levels have been determined.
   The $74.8 million dredging project was started in 2004 and will bring the river depth to 15 feet from bank to bank for 5.5 miles. The work started at the furthest inland point from the mouth of the river and was about 40 percent completed when work stopped more than a year ago.
   Perez said that in anticipation of uncertain federal funding, the Corps of Engineers worked out a five-year contract, even though the action work could be completed in somewhere between two and three years. The project is actually broken down into 15 sections, six of which have been completed.
   But when Congress allocated only $3.5 million for the Miami River project for fiscal year 2006, the Corps of Engineers authorized an 'interim demobilization' and told the contractor it could move equipment to other projects until more funding became available.
   Although it is now more than three months into federal fiscal year 2007, Congress has not yet put together a conference committee to work out a final funding program for dredging. The Bush administration budget called for $3.5 million for the work, while the House voted $4.1 million and the Senate voted an even $7 million for the project.
   Perez said that following normal funding patterns, even with a delay, funding should be authorized early in 2007. That is why the contractor has been told to be ready to begin work in February or March.
   Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County officials are looking at a contract change that would allow an immediate allocation of all the remaining county funding, which covers 20 percent of the project.
   The Infrastructure Committee of the County Commission has already endorsed option, and a final vote is expected in January or February.
   In addition, there has been some discussion of the county working out a new contract with the Corps of Engineers that would call for the county putting up all the remaining funding for the project in anticipation of eventual reimbursement from the federal government.
   Perez said such agreements have been done at other locations in the past, but that nothing has been decided yet on the Miami River project.
   He said that if full funding were authorized, the final nine sections of the dredging project could be completed during 2007, with each section typically taking from 30 days to 90 days to complete.
   Until then, river pilots will have to play the high tides to bring vessels up the river, even with limited cargo loads. If the project was completed, the handling capacity of the river would increase significantly.