The Killian Drive interchange with the Shula Expressway (874) is still on track for completion “this spring,” according to the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX).
“All lanes are now open and all directional signage has been installed,” Mario A. Diaz, MDX public information officer, reported on Feb. 17.
“The final paving at the Killian Parkway Interchange began in mid-February and is anticipated to last about one month,” he said. “Paving will take place on the Don Shula Expressway after the paving on Killian Parkway is complete. The project is in its final phase of construction and is scheduled for completion this spring.”
Now in its third month beyond an anticipated 18- to 24-month completion schedule, the project has cost $1.8 million over the original contract estimate.
“The original construction contract was for $68,146,050,” he stated, as of Feb. 21.
“As a result of MDX requested changes, unforeseen site conditions and quantity overruns on the project (not originally included in the contract), the final project cost is $69,993,821.39.”
An MDX announcement for the SR 874/Shula Expressway and Killian Parkway Capacity Improvements project initially pegged costs at $61.5 million, prior to actual bidding and a contract award.
The orange barrels that guide new traffic lane configurations should be removed by mid-March, MDX spokesperson Tere Garcia said during a Jan. 11 meeting in Kendall.
Questions about removing the barrels and construction completion were raised by Miller Myers, an outspoken critic of MDX’s Open Road Tolling installations on formerly free expressways.
At the time, Garcia said that accidents attributable to the change in directional signage were being monitored by traffic engineers who would continue studying traffic patterns upon project completion.
Great, but are they going to get the north and southbound lanes even and smooth.?? Right now those lanes are so bumpy and uneven its terrible. The northbound two lane bottle neck is wrong. Should be three all the way through, it just slows and backs up traffic going north, and i go through there at six in the morning. You don't need that wide of a ramp entering northbound from Killian Parkway. Its always empty when i go by. You go through the I-4 area in Orlando everything is smooth and perfect. I hope the Traffic engineers can get it together. I have been driving that road for thirty years.