FYI Miami: April 7, 2022

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

MONORAIL PRICE DELAYED: Miami-Dade County has granted an extension to MBM Partners for an updated price proposal for the trunkline segment of rapid transit in the Miami Beach Corridor for six months, said the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works communications and special project administrator Luis Espinoza. An updated price proposal for the downtown-Beach monorail project had been due toward the end of this month. This extension, which was provided in the negotiation agreement, is meant to give more time to work on the project’s inflated price, which went from $586.5 million to almost $1 billion. “There have been several proposals, with many engineering compounds,” Mr. Espinoza said. The line is part of the county’s Smart plan for six new rapid transit corridors. 

MONEY FOR MOVEMENT: The City of Miami is the recipient of a $1.18 million grant from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for capital funding for additional transit vehicles. City commissioners authorized the city manager to execute a public transportation grant agreement with FDOT and accept the contribution. Equal matching funds are to be allocated from the city’s share of the transit surtax, the resolution says. The project entails funds to assist with the purchase of new trolleys for continued operation of the Miami Trolley System.

A BETTER BETTER BUS?: Concerned over transit service provided to unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade, commissioners approved a resolution this week directing Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to examine the Better Bus Network and identify new potential routes within unincorporated areas that can be served. The resolution sponsored by Commissioner Joe A. Martinez directs the mayor to prepare within 90 days a plan describing the recommended circulator routes, identifying whether there is a need to buy more vehicles for them, providing any other considerations necessary for such service, and identifying the cost and funding sources to fund such service. The Better Bus Network was approved in October 2021 and concentrates service hours on fewer routes with higher frequencies. To help increase the speed of buses, the plan reduced dozens of routes and the number of stops, bringing the spacing of stops to an average distance of a quarter-mile.

MOROCCO ROUTE RETURNS: Royal Air Maroc, which launched its Casablanca to Miami route in April 2019, plans to reopen the route – closed for months because of Covid-19 – on April 10, according to Morocco World News. The route was supposed to be relaunched in December but was delayed by covid. Morocco reopened its air borders on Feb. 7 after almost three months of closure, the news service said.