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Front Page » Government » MiamiCentral and Brightline get aerial easement boost

MiamiCentral and Brightline get aerial easement boost

Written by on May 30, 2017
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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MiamiCentral and Brightline get aerial easement boost

Not only is MiamiCentral and its Brightline passenger rail service designed to help unclog congested roadways, but the elevated train station also serves to keep street traffic downtown on the move.
In order for All Aboard Florida to build its elevated transportation hub, and make direct connections to Miami-Dade County’s Metrorail and Metromover trains at Government Center Station, air rights needed to be secured.
One of the last air space right-of-ways – or aerial easements – was approved May 25 by Miami city commissioners.
The resolution authorizes City Manager Daniel Alfonso to execute an aerial easement with DT Miami LLC for All Aboard Florida railroad terminal encroachments over and across city right-of-way known as Northwest Third Street, between Northwest First Avenue and Miami-Dade County Metrorail north corridor right-of-way.
A background memo on the resolution says DT Miami received approval from the county to build a project that includes a terminal of the All Aboard Florida passenger rail system, office, retail and residential development, known as MiamiCentral.
The county’s approval requires construction of an elevated pedestrian connection between the project and the adjacent Government Center Station.
The airspace easement will make the connection possible.
The resolution says the city wants to grant DT Miami an easement so it can construct, maintain and access the improvements “to allow safe and reasonable aerial access between the station and connecting adjacent parcels to the station, to the Miami-Dade Governmental Center Metrorail Station.”
MiamiCentral is under construction across several city blocks paralleling Northwest First Avenue. Work began in 2014 just north of the county courthouse and the county’s Stephen P. Clark Center, bringing a major transportation hub to the footprint of the city’s first train station.
MiamiCentral is on track for an opening this year, followed by development of apartments, shops, offices and other companion commercial uses.
The new rail station is being integrated with county Metrorail and Metromover systems, and is being considered a transit hub for the city with connections to buses, trolleys, taxis and more.
Its primary function is home to a new passenger rail service called Brightline. MiamiCentral will also house a Tri-Rail link.
In March, express passenger rail service Brightline announced target dates for service launch in South Florida, with introductory express service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale beginning in late July, followed by service to Miami in late August.
Just west of the main construction, All Aboard Florida is building a mixed-use project known as 3 MiamiCentral that will bring a grocer, along with office and retail uses to the Overtown neighborhood.

5 Responses to MiamiCentral and Brightline get aerial easement boost

  1. DC Copeland

    May 31, 2017 at 8:04 am

    Luckily the bureaucratic mind-think that was used at Flagler and Biscayne didn’t come into play here. A few years ago “experts” made Tibor Hollo remove the elevated platform that he envisioned connecting MetroMover to his proposed legacy project, the 1,000’+ multi-use skyscraper One Bayfront Plaza. In that case, they– including the DDA– wanted people riding the elevated tram to exit and take the stairs/elevator down to Biscayne Blvd and cross traffic to get to his building. The reason: to make downtown feel like a “real metropolis” with people walking the streets.

    • Alan

      June 4, 2017 at 10:23 am

      I love transportation done right. Agree Mr. Copeland that would have been a nightmare.

      • DC Copeland

        June 5, 2017 at 10:52 am

        That “nightmare” is still with us. Hollo agreed to scrap the elevated platform to his building.

  2. Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D.

    June 6, 2017 at 10:23 am

    It sounds like a sensible approach to modern transportation. I feel to see the “nightmarish” aspect of it. Cities like New York, Chicago and Philadelphia regularly use such elevated approaches to separate road and rail.

    • DC Copeland

      June 6, 2017 at 12:06 pm

      Off the grid mass transit is not the “nightmarish” aspect of what happened to Hollo’s building. It’s the fact he conceded to the “experts” to scrap the elevated platform connecting the MetroMover station to his building. Now thousands of people who take the MetroMover will have to disembark, hit the street rain or shine and run/walk across 3-lanes of traffic to get to that building. It shows no common sense– especially when the developer was willing to pay for that pedestrian flyover from the station.

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