S. FLORIDA:$1.4 billion Pike Plans in Miami

The Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) has just released plans for major rehabiliation and extension of its toll road system, a 3-exwy HOT lanes network, a new spinal central area pike, 2 radial pike extensions and a truck toll tunnel to the port. The board of MDX has approved a “Five Year Work Program” estimated to cost $407m involving commitment and starts on projects which are expected to cost $1.4b by completion in 8 to 10 years.

An official there says staff and consultants are finishing details of a $2.7b 12-year capital program, and financial plans to gain well over $100m in annual revenue within three or four years rising to $500m annually in 10 or 12 years, but those are unofficial numbers for now.

What seems clear is that Miami is getting serious about tolls and improving its old atrophied turnpikes. The latest Texas Transp Inst data (see p15) show Miami (and Chicago) having elbowed out the San Francisco Bay area for 3rd place below Los Angeles and Washington DC in the Congestion League Ladder as measured by TTI’s Road Congestion Index.

Miami area roads have been neglected the past 20 years with tax monies squandered on spectacularly underused rail projects. Miami is 44th ranking in 50 US cities in terms of mwy-equivalent lane-km (fwy lane-km + 0.38 arterial lane-km) per thousand population. Miami with 2563 mwy-equiv lane-km has about the same population (c 2m) as Minneapolis, St Louis, Baltimore, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Dallas but they have 3300, 4142, 3339, 3039, 3045 and 4206 lane-km of highway, according to a TRnl spreadsheet. By this measure of similar sized cities Miami could do with 25% or 700 lane-km more highway, and it probably needs higher quality as well, as the other cities have a higher proportion built to modern standards at interchanges. The Miami system is plagued with weaving problems from over-close entering and exit ramps, leftside IC ramps, abrupt lane drops and short merge distances.

MDX is a regional toll authority formed in 1995 after the failure of two attempts to get local residents to accept higher gas taxes via ballot to fund highway improvements.

In December 1996 MDX issued $80m of bonds to fund acqusition of five old urban-area toll roads from the Turnpike District of the state DOT. These total 50 centerline km (31mi), 285 lane-km (178 lane-mi) with four mainline toll plazas. The system was basically built in the 1960s with only minor widenings since.

Gesture tolls

The tolls charged must be among the lowest in the US, possibly in the world — 25c for a per-mile charge of 1c to 3c (1/2c to 2c/km).

On two of the pikes there is only eastbound tolling and ramp plazas were never built anywhere in the system, so a large proportion of trips on the network — by some estimates two-thirds — are not tolled at all. Revenues are presently only $20m/year on 220k tolls/day. Data are not good but an official told us his estimate is that 600 to 700k trips/day are made on the system.

The tolls cover operating costs but at a low level of maintenance and with no surplus to support rebuilds or expansion. Service is correspondingly poor with serious congestion, especially on the premier East-West Exy FL836, and on the Gratigny Parkway FL924. The Airport Exy FL112, the South Dade Exy FL874, and its Snapper Creek Exy FL878 are not much better. These are the major east-west and radial routes in the central Miami area, apart from I-95 south-north.

Financial plans are still rubbery but one plan would increase basic 25c tolls to 75c and aim to capture 90% of trips with tolls, which would immediately bring revenue into the $150m to $200m annual range.

Vice-chair of the board Norman Wartman says that to gain support for serious toll revenues like that the Authority will have to show improvements in service on existing roads and the prospect of further improvements through extensions to the system. Some of the earliest projects will be rebuilding the existing major eastbound toll plaza on FL836 at NW27th Av, adding a new ramp plaza at NW17th Av and constructing a new westbound toll plaza at NW57th Av. Each will be equipped with highway speed electronic toll lanes, which in Florida are being called ‘turbo-lanes.’

MDX will be among the first to get SunPass, the ETC system being supplied by Amtech.

HOT lanes

FL836 is 2x4, 2x3 and 2x2 lanes and will get extra pairs of auxiliary lanes in places and new interchanges (ICs). A single lane reversible Houston style HOT lane is planned in 14km of the central median of FL836 from the fringe HEFT turnpike (run by FDOT) in east to NW72nd Av.

A pair of HOT lanes are also planned for the 12km of the FL874 South Dade Exwy. MDX also proposes to build and operate another reversible single HOT lane on FL826, the untolled north-south Palmetto Exwy. This will provide an express lane network since the FL826 Palmetto links the two pikes planned to have HOT lanes (FL874 and FL836).

The Work Plan says the system would “operate as a fully automatic congestion pricing lane.” Apparently even with IC improvements and some auxiliary lanes FL836 is considered unlikely to be able to guarantee free flow conditions in its regular lanes, so the express lane would use premium congestion pricing tolls over and above the regular toll rates.

New pikes

The largest new pike to be gotten under way will be north-south from the FL836 near the southwestern corner of Miami Int Airport to the FL112 Airport Exwy. That 3km section is being called the Interconnector (1).

Continuing north of the Airport Exwy FL112 along the path of NW37th Av this will interchange with the FL924 Gratigny Pkwy and terminate at the FL826 Palmetto Exwy where it swings east. This new 14km Central Parkway (2) will therefore provide a new direct connection to Miami Int Airport and the highway network to the north and Broward Co. It will also tie three of MDX’s presently unconnected toll roads together, and allow the authority to dominate access to Miami Int Airport.

The Interconnector is estimated to cost $90m with half of the construction within the 5-year program. The Central Parkway is a $631m project with construction beyond the present 5-year program.

Other sections of new pike planned are:

• an extension westward 3km of the FL836 which presently terminates at the HEFT, taking it to NW137th Av (3)

• a new east-west toll road NW74thSt eastward 8km from the HEFT to NW 72nd Av (4)

• a 2-lane NW25th St Viaduct over the FL826 Palmetto Exwy to provide improved access on the west side of Miami Int Airport, a $95m project to rely entirely on electronic tolling (5)

• a 2.9km 4-lane tunnel principally for trucks to provide motorway quality access to the port of Miami by linking I-95/FL838 and I-395/MacArthur Causeway under the main shipping channel. Cost $383m.(6)

Not mentioned in the present plans is a FL112-West (7). This highway would be 12km in length from the present end of FL112 Airport Exwy, along the north edge of the airport west to the HEFT. An upgrade to mwy standard of an extisting arterial it would be 4 lanes, cost $680m and provide major relief for FL836 paralleling it 4km to the north. Earlier discussions gave FDOT jurisdiction over the FL112-West, but it has no money for the project, and may be taken up by MDX in its longer term plan. As a free road it could undercut FL836 revenues.

Dade Transp Consultants, a joint venture of Parsons Brinck, Post Buckley and a local firm B&A are doing a lot of consulting to MDX. (Contact Sarah Crowell, MDX 305 637 3277x11)