PortMiami tunnel opened – at last!

The long-awaited US$1bn PortMiami tunnel opened yesterday (Sunday 3rd) a day earlier that expected after 11 weeks of construction delays, leading to an almost US$9m fine for Paris-based construction company, Bouygues.

After overcoming issues with vibrating and disintegrating jet exhaust fans and a leaking drainage pipe, the tunnel should route 16,000 port-bound vehicles daily from downtown Miami onto the Macarthur Causeway and then under Biscayne Bay.

With no grand opening, Chris Hodgkins, vice president of MAT Concessionaire, the consortium of companies that built the tunnel and will operate it, said recently: “The only prize for the first customer will be a quick drive time into the port. We’re a tunnel, not Best Buy.”