Port of Miami Tunnel Gets New Backer

A new equity partner has apparently saved the Port of Miami tunnel project just in time for a June 1 deadline.

The team slated to dig and operate twin tunnels to the Port of Miami now includes French equity partner Meridiam Infrastructure, the Miami Herald reported.

Florida transportation department officials have agreed to allow the Paris-based investment fund to replace the project's original 90 percent equity partner, Australian investment and asset manager Babcock & Brown, after that company's financial troubles nearly sank the long-planned tunnel.

Department Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos tried in December to shelve the $1 billion-plus project, citing equity issues with Babcock & Brown.

In giving approval to Meridiam, Kopelousos set strict deadlines: business terms must be set by June 1 and the contractor must get financing by Oct. 1.

County leaders have repeatedly said that the tunnel is critical for the built-out port to accommodate the spike in cargo that's expected after the Panama Canal completes building a third set of locks that can accommodate container ships with almost three times the capacity of the ships that can currently pass through its locks.

The tunnel is a key element of plans to revitalize downtown Miami where trucks now jam narrow streets as they try to get in and out of the port.

The port sits on an island off downtown Miami and is connected to the mainland by a causeway. Trucks moving in and out of the port must inch through downtown traffic and share lanes with cars headed to and from the port's busy cruise ship terminals.

The proposed side-by-side tunnels, each with two lanes, would provide direct access to interstate highways I-95 and I-395. It would begin with a ramped hole in the middle of the port, descend 100 feet below the cruise ship terminals on the port's north side, then proceed under Government Cut and connect to the MacArthur Causeway.

Contact Marcy Behrmann Frank at mfrank@joc.com.