page_title: Port Miami Tunnel
section_title: Criticism
hierarchical_section_title: Port Miami Tunnel / Overview / Criticism
caption_attribution_description: English: Port of Miami Tunnel middle segment
context_page_description: The Port of Miami Tunnel is a 4,200 feet bored, undersea tunnel in Miami, Florida. It consists of two parallel tunnels that travel beneath Biscayne Bay, connecting the MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island with PortMiami on Dodge Island. 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.
  The project was approved after decades of planning and discussion in December 2007, but was temporarily cancelled a year later. Construction began in May 2010. The tunnel boring machine began work in November 2011 and completed the second tunnel in May 2013. The tunnel was opened to traffic on August 3, 2014. 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.
context_section_description: According to the Miami Herald the financing structure of the plan is notable for the amount of financial risk taken by the builders in return for the long term concession on the tunnel. Opposition to the project states that it is a waste of taxpayer money, and may become Miami's Big Dig, the nickname of a tunnel megaproject in Boston, which was a $4 billion project that ended up costing $22 billion in cost overruns. Many believe that the Port of Miami Tunnel Project will be likely to have similar cost overruns, even though the Secretary of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) promised that the project would finish on time and without overruns. They also state that truck traffic is not a problem in Downtown, and that since 1991 car and truck traffic had reduced significantly.
  Downtown business owners have referred to it as the "tunnel to no where," stating that no one will use it. In 1992, 32,000 vehicles entered the port daily, a number which later dropped to nearly half that, but had once again risen to around 19,000 by 2011. It has been regarded as a boondoggle project by those who oppose it, stating that the city can't afford it. In fact, the city did have difficulty providing its $50 million portion of the funding for the project. Some believe it may create traffic problems on the MacArthur Causeway; environmentalists worry about the potentially negative impact the construction could have on the Biscayne Bay. An ominous foreshadowing of cost overruns, Miami Access Tunnel requested money from a $150 million reserve fund in July 2011 for the unexpected need to grout the limestone beneath the surface so that the tunnel boring machine cuts more smoothly. This request alarmed new Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Giménez when it was brought up at his first commissioners meeting as mayor on July 7.
  The contractor stated that they will continue without the additional requested money if FDOT denies it, but it may end up as a court case as the contractor seeks it later. On July 19, the FDOT denied the request for more money to the contractor, stating that the geological issue cited was not as extensive as MAT claimed.
caption: Center of the tunnel traveling from MacArthur Causeway to PortMiami
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