Altogether, the port infrastructure projects had an estimated cost of around two billion dollars. Port director Bill Johnson has also played a key role in supporting the Port of Miami infrastructure projects, as well as developing a free-trade pact with Colombia. Despite this, in April 2009, following intense lobbying by Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, to avoid a new tender that would delay even further the start of construction, the project was reinstated. However, the economic crisis resulted in a cancellation of the project in December 2008 by one of the sponsors, Babcock & Brown, and the State of Florida. It was not until 2006 that the tender for the tunnel project was ready to be launched, and in December 2007 the project was approved by the City Commission. Although the veto was overridden, the tunnel proposal fell by the wayside. The issues would be remedied by the construction of the tunnel, allowing traffic to move between PortMiami and the MacArthur Causeway (which connects to Interstate 95 via I-395) without traveling through downtown.įederal funding for a preliminary study into the tunnel proposal was included in the controversial 1987 highway bill which was vetoed by President Ronald Reagan, who complained that the bill was a " pork-barrel" project. These problems were alleviated, but not solved, by the construction of a six-lane elevated bridge, which still stands, in the early 1990s. The heavy traffic was considered detrimental to the economic growth of downtown, and a planned project to expand the port's capacity threatened to increase the volume of trucks coming through. Prior to the tunnel's opening, the only route for PortMiami traffic was a two-lane drawbridge that emptied out into the streets of downtown Miami. The idea of a tunnel connecting the Port of Miami to Watson Island was first conceived in the 1980s as a way to reduce traffic congestion in downtown Miami. In the first month after opening, the tunnel averaged 7,000 vehicles per day, and nearly 16,000 vehicles now travel to the port on a typical weekday.
The tunnel was opened to traffic on August 3, 2014. The tunnel boring machine began work in November 2011 and completed the second tunnel in May 2013.
The project was approved after decades of planning and discussion in December 2007, but was temporarily cancelled a year later. It was built in a public–private partnership between three government entities-the Florida Department of Transportation, Miami-Dade County, and the City of Miami-and the private entity MAT Concessionaire LLC, which was in charge of designing, building, and financing the project and holds a 30-year concession to operate the tunnel. It consists of two parallel tunnels (one in each direction) that travel beneath Biscayne Bay, connecting the MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island with PortMiami on Dodge Island. The Port of Miami Tunnel (also State Road 887) is a 4,200-foot (1,300 m) bored, undersea tunnel in Miami, Florida. SR A1A ( MacArthur Causeway) on Watson Island
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