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Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) on June 4 officially broke ground for the all-new South Corridor Rapid Transit Project.
The event took place at the 296th Street Park & Ride lot along the TransitWay. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, along with other elected officials and community leaders, were in attendance for this momentous occasion.
“Today is the result of years of planning, vision, and coordination with a shared goal in mind: to reshape transportation in Miami-Dade County,” Mayor Levine Cava said. “Breaking ground on the South Dade Rapid Transit Project — the first SMART plan corridor — is a major milestone and step forward in our work to better connect all corners of Miami-Dade.
This project will provide important transportation relief in the short term, as we continue to push for expansion to rail — and critically, all the BRT stations along the corridor will be convertible to rail.”
The South Corridor Rapid Transit Project is one of the six Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan corridors evaluated to identify a rapid transit service to meet the mobility needs of Miami-Dade County. It will provide high-quality transit service operating with similar features to rail. These services will include preemptive signals, off-board fare collection, and level boarding, designed to improve capacity and offer more reliability and deliver fast, efficient service.
Once completed, this new rapid transit service will provide 20 miles of exclusive transit right-of-way, parallel to S. Dixie Highway (US1), with signal preemption, offering an easy 60-minute ride from Homestead to Downtown Miami.
It will include two end-of-line terminals at Dadeland South and SW 344th Street; 14 new iconic, state-of-the-art transit stations, which will serve both the BRT Limited and All-Stop Routes, and 16 additional stops for the All-Stop Route on South Dade TransitWay.
The South Corridor Rapid Transit Project and BRT service is made possible by the financial support of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), and the People’s Transportation Plan (PTP) managed by the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust (CITT).
In late 2020, DTPW was awarded a $99.9 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration specifically for the South Corridor Rapid Transit Project. This was the first Federal Capital Investment Grant that Miami-Dade County had received since the Metromover extension in 1993 and the original South Miami-Dade Busway in 1999.
FDOT also has committed an additional $100 million, with Miami-Dade County funding the remaining $100 million for the South Dade Rapid Transit Project.
The South Dade Bus Rapid Transit Project is being designed and built by Obrascón Huarte Lain (OHL), a Spanish multinational construction and civil engineering company.
For more on DTPW services, visit miamidade.gov/transit or download the GO Miami-Dade Transit app.
