FDOT Solves Train Station Problem At MIA
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A major design flaw at the new train station near Miami International Airport will get the simplest and cheapest solution Florida Department of Transportation officials said Thursday.
The station was built with short platforms that would leave some long trains in the middle of the street. According to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald, FDOT officials had considered tunnels or rebuilding part of the train station.
But, according to the Herald, FDOT will build two new streets in the commercial district to give drivers a detour when longer Amtrak trains are parked at Miami Central Station. The station is currently scheduled to be completed next summer.
Without the detours, the trains would block NW 25th Street for up to 45 minutes twice a day, the Herald reported.
FDOT engineers laid the blame for the construction failure at the feet of Amtrak. The platforms at the new station will be as much as 200 feet too short to accommodate some of the long trains the service sometimes uses on its Miami routes.
Taxpayers will pay $9 million to acquire the land, build the streets and install the traffic signals to get motorists around the lengthy trains.
One of the new roads will lengthen Northwest 28th Street across to Northwest 37th Avenue/Douglas Road. The second would run from Northwest 25th just east of the train tracks north to Douglas, so that motorists find a detour when the street is closed.
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