Miami-Dade breaks ground on South Corridor Rapid Transit Project
The Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) held a groundbreaking ceremony June 4 for the South Corridor Rapid Transit Project, a 20-mile corridor that will connect some of the region’s fastest growing communities along an exclusive transit right-of-way.
The South Corridor Rapid Transit Project is one of six corridors in the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit Plan, which aims to expand and connect premium transit services and improve transit reliability.
The bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor will parallel US-1, be equipped with signal preemption and offer a 60-minute ride between Homestead and Downtown Miami. The corridor includes 14 new state-of-the-art stations that will serve both BRT and all-stop routes, as well as 16 additional stops for the all-stop route on the South Dade TransitWay.
“Today is the result of years of planning, vision and coordination with a shared goal in mind: to reshape transportation in Miami-Dade County,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “Breaking ground on the South Dade Rapid Transit Project – the first SMART plan corridor – is a major milestone and step forward in our work to better connect all corners of Miami-Dade. This project will provide important transportation relief in the short term, as we continue to push for expansion to rail – and critically, all the BRT stations along the corridor will be convertible to rail.”
In late August 2020, the project was awarded a $99.9-million grant through the Federal Transit Administration Capital Investment Grant Program, which represents 33 percent of the project’s total estimated cost of $299.9 million. DTPW’s Small Starts CIG funds were the first the county had received since the Metromover extension in 1993 and the original South Miami-Dade Busway in 1999.
The remaining project cost is being covered with $100 million from the Florida Department of Transportation and an additional $100 million from Miami-Dade County.
In October 2020, DTPW awarded a design-build contract to Obrascón Huarte Lain (OHL), a Spanish multinational construction and civil engineering company.
Mischa Wanek-Libman | Group Editorial Director
Mischa Wanek-Libman is director of communications with Transdev North America. She has more than 20 years of experience working in the transportation industry covering construction projects, engineering challenges, transit and rail operations and best practices.
Wanek-Libman has held top editorial positions at freight rail and public transportation business-to-business publications including as editor-in-chief and editorial director of Mass Transit from 2018-2024. She has been recognized for editorial excellence through her individual work, as well as for collaborative content.
She is an active member of the American Public Transportation Association's Marketing and Communications Committee and served 14 years as a Board Observer on the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association (NRC) Board of Directors.
She is a graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication.
