A $40 million spending step is rolling with $389.5 million in US grants as the prize to build a Northeast Corridor Rapid Transit line that is to link downtown Miami with Aventura and add five commuter stations along the way.
Last week, two county committees each OK’d a pair of $20 million contract additions to meet requirements to bring the federal money over the finish line.
Both the Transportation and the Appropriations committees approved adding $20 million to an engineering contract and the same amount to a transportation planning contract for the next two years. Both would come from the half-percent transportation sales surtax that voters approved two decades ago to add transportation.
Parsons Transportation Group is to analyze the project’s financial viability and funding strategies, evaluate fare policy to assess potential impacts on revenue and ridership, and estimate the route’s potential use. HNTB Corp. is to analyze the effects of proposed transit on road congestion and the county’s overall transportation.
The rail line is already listed in the federal New Starts Program, has won environmental approval and been approved to enter this engineering phase, which the county says is the final step before it gets federal funding to serve the public.
Last year the county began seeking an operating agency to take charge of the 13.5-mile corridor as the board of directors. Informal discussions have looked at Tri-Rail, Brightline and the county’s transit system to actually drive the trains.
The capital cost is estimated at $927.3 million, with 42% from federal grants. The Florida Department of Transportation has committed $200 million, with the rest from the sales surtax.
The line is targeted to provide commuter rail 19 hours a day, seven days a week starting in December 2027 as the first segment of an 85-mile Coastal Link connecting Miami-Dade with Broward and Palm Beach counties.