Miami-Dade commissioners firm up port tunnel

Miami-Dade commissioners firm up port tunnel Miami-Dade County Commissioners Tuesday endorsed a far-reaching downtown Miami development plan, firming up plans for the Port of Miami tunnel project.
   The commissioners approved a conceptual 'global' agreement with the City of Miami to move forward with a multibillion-dollar series of projects, in which the $914 million port tunnel is the single largest project.
   The county had already approved its $402.5 million local match for the port tunnel, and the city commissioners last week approved a separate resolution to provide $50 million for the tunnel.
   But the city endorsement of the tunnel was based on the broad agreement for a series of projects, including a new $525 million stadium for the Florida Marlins baseball team at the site of the Orange Bowl. The agreement included so many projects there were concerns the country commissioners could possibly balk at the deal, which has been public for less than a week. Had the commissioners voted to table the proposal for further study, that would have once again put the port tunnel in limbo, and just one day after a deadline from the Florida Department of Transportation and the international consortium selected to build the tunnel to complete an underlying funding agreement for the project. Any further delay would likely have killed the tunnel project, because the FDOT is has allocated $462 million for the tunnel.
   But the commissioners and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez stressed at the Tuesday commissioners meeting that project that have not been fully planned out — unlike the port tunnel — would still be subject to public scrutiny and review. For example, the Florida Marlins have not signed off of the funding plan nor has the team ownership agreed to a design for a new stadium.
   'It's a conceptual vote that move a big concept, a big plan, forward,' Alvarez assured the commissioners.
   With city and county endorsement in place, the consortium led by the France-based international construction giant Bouygues Travaux Publics and its financing partner, Australia-based asset fund company Babcock & Brown, is ready to move forward. The tunnel is expected to be operational by 2012, improving access to the port, providing a direct link to the main Miami highways, and ending the need to have drayage truckers driving through stoplights and downtown Miami traffic.
   The only remaining step in funding the port tunnel is official authorization to expand the Community Redevelopment Agency taxing district that will generate the city share of the port project. Without expanding the taxing district, city officials concluded the port tunnel and many of the other 'mega-deal' projects could not be funded.
   With the overall plan in place, local officials say, the final authorization of the CRA expansion is not expected to be opposed. ' Jim Dow