Showing posts with label Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Connecting-the-dots on some South Florida transportation outrages re Tri-Rail; airline passengers being the low man in the airport totem pole at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport under Kent George; ethics of Delaware North's no-bid contract; Uber and Lyft fight for customer choice; fact-based sarcasm and then some about taxpayers and customers always coming up last when it involves transportation policy

Connecting-the-dots on some South Florida transportation outrages re Tri-Rail; airline passengers being the low man in the airport totem pole at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport under Kent George; ethics of Delaware North's no-bid contract; Uber and Lyft fight for customer choice; fact-based sarcasm and then some about taxpayers and customers always coming up last when it involves transportation policy






Speaking of South Florida transportation slowpokes, here are some quick appetizers:
SFRTA, i.e. Tri-Rail, finally got a YouTube Channel last week. 
Only took until February of 2015...

 After finally getting on Twitter Jan. 27th! @Tri_Rail https://twitter.com/Tri_Rail

 So why did it take them so long and why would they not have the word TriRail in their URL? That's what I'm wondering.

 There's a YouTube Channel that's actually called SFRTA -because there wasn't one already!- and which uses one of SFRTA's photos called https://www.youtube.com/user/SFRTA which is run by someone interested in "model railroading and railfanning"

 And so it goes in South Florida transportation circles.
Round-and-round instead of progress.
Can't wait until Tri-Rail hears about "quadraphonic" stereo...

 (Warning: More fact-based sarcasm after the article)

 South Florida Sun Sentinel
Uber doesn't like the rules? Tough
Gary Stein
February 1, 2015

 Sorry, but I am not a card-carrying member of the trendy Uber Fan Club.

 The arrogant yuppie, technology-based alternative to cabs is facing fines and being told to stop operating in Broward and Palm Beach counties -- and a lot of other places -- mainly because Uber has this idea about rules.

 It doesn't like them.
Read the rest of the column at:

Do you mean the cellphone waiting lot at FLL that for years has had such poorly-designed directional signs that both longtime Broward residents and visitors who use it infrequently, constantly missed it, and had to drive round-and-round the airport?
THAT airport waiting area?




Well, as IF we needed more proof of how disconnected from reality the obtuse Sun-Sentinel and its Opinion page & Editorial Board members are... say hello again to Gary Stein, the same genius who's been directly involved for years in some of the Sun-Sentinel's most eye-rolling municipal election endorsements over the years that have left people scratching their heads.

Ones where Sun-Sentinel endorsements actually didn't use a candidate's demonstarted unethical behavior against them because as we've seen thru the years, the paper prefers identity politics to a competition of articulated public policy ideas.

 Yes, the same Sun-Sentinel writing talent whose track record in the case of Hallandale Beach a few years back proved how little preparation they actually did before their Editorial Board's candidates interviews, given how little HE knew about ANYTHING, whether about the individual candidates or the specific issues affecting HB voters or...

 Stein did so little preperation, in fact, that neither he or the other assembled geniuses there knew what most of us did: that HB citizens were being prevented from voting for three (3) City Commission candidates for the -yes- 3 available seats that November, thanks to the shenanigans of Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, who wanted to insure a back-door route that would allow Comm. Anthony Sanders to get in by hook-or-by-crook and continue his years of misadventures in policy-making and ethics.

(Despite NOT being one of the two candidates who received the most votes, because of the way the the rules were written, Comm. Sanders got to stay on the dais, with predictably lamentable results since then for HB taxpayers and Small Business owners with common sense.)

I wrote about this back on October 17, 2012:

Absolutely pummeled! Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders & ex-Comm. Bill Julian both bomb at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Editorial Board meeting for HB candidates Monday morning, while Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean shine while enthusiastically making the case for a pro-reform City Hall that actually serves taxpayers to replace the corrupt and unethical one we've been stuck with for years under Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew; Kulin, Lazarow & Dean recount in detail most of the major issues and recent scandals; @SandersHB, @AlexLewy

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/absolutely-pummeled-hallandale-beach.html

and then later on October 30, 2012:
Their lack of Journalism ethics is hiding in plain sight: In their head-scratching endorsement of do-nothing Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders over civic activist Csaba Kulin, the Tribune Co's Sun-Sentinel said he has "experience." Yes, but it's of the completely ineffective and unethical variety we don't want more of!; Vote Kulin!; @SandersHB
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/their-lack-of-journalism-ethics-is.html

As to the matter of the local taxi industry as it is managed by Broward County and its current notions of customer service, consider the curious case of my good friend and fellow HB civic activist Csaba "Chuck" Kulin.
Csaba is someone who is both well-known and trusted by so many of you because of his MANY 
years of hard work and dedicated civic service to the larger community, often a voice for reason and clarity against great odds.
And unlike many people I know, he DOESN'T embellish!

 On two separate occasions between Sept. of 2013 and last April, Csaba saw exactly how benevolent Broward taxi drivers are when push comes to shove, and told me about what happened to him each time within 24 hours.
Csaba twice had to take a taxi from FLL to his home in Hallandale Beach after arriving either too late or TOO EARLY for me to swing by the airport -about 15-20 minutes from where we live- and pick him up, as he has done before many times for me.

 Thanks to the egregiously poor job FDOT had done at that point in redesigning US-1 to and from the airport, particularly with their U-turn from hell, each time, the taxi driver consistently tried -but failed - to take advantage of Csaba by trying to drive him to his home in Hallandale Beach on NE 14th Avenue via... I-595 and then 441/State Road 7.
Yes, that State Road 441.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with our part of South Florida know, that is more than a little bit west of the airport's entrance and exit off of U.S.-1 the street that runs thru the middle of Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Aventura.
And FAR west of dear old HB, as you can see here, via a hypothetical trip from FLL to HB City Hall I've created to demonstrate- https://goo.gl/maps/nc6DU 
Taking the route the taxi driver wanted would have more than doubled the taxi fare Csaba was charged.

 Yes, as if the taxi driver thought that the best way to show some South Florida hospitality to someone who was groggy from a late or early-arriving flight, was by trying to take advantage of him and his wallet.
But Csaba was hip to what the taxi driver was up to, and forced him to drive the route the taxi driver in each case clearly did NOT want to take -the straightest route!

 But think about how many dozens and dozens of times that happens a week when neither you or I know the passenger involved who ARE taken advantage of by unscrupulous taxi drivers.
What do you suppose those visitors image of Broward and South Florida is after that?
Exactly!

 Uber and Lyft -the sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.












































And then, it's time for the Broward County Commission to finally wake up to the 21st Century and create a long-overdue citizen Advisory Board for FLL Airport, so that the cozy and curious business and economic connections there that consistently seem to work AGAINST the best short-term and long-term interests of visitors and Broward taxpayers, are finally given the proper scrutiny they have long deserved.

You know, like renewing a longtime no-bid contract with a company with years and years of public complaints and few answers?

Broward Commission skips bids, awards 15-year airport food contract to Delaware North

As my friend and fellow Broward civic activist Charlotte Greenbarg writes in the comments above, this particular move -which the Miami Herald never mentioned when it mattered- in rewarding a company that had longstanding problems delivering a quality product on a consistent basis to consumers, only shows the sheer level of power that lobbyists exert in this county, to the continuing detriment of Broward's taxpayers. :-(

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
No-bid airport contract raises eyebrows
February 7, 2014

The Broward County Commission may have chosen the best company for a multi-year airport food-and-concessions contract, but it's hard to know for sure because it skipped the open-bid process, raising questions and doubt.

Local governments are supposed to put contracts out to bid to ensure the public gets the best deal. Sure, the process is a hassle. And sometimes it's easier to re-up with a long-term provider if you want needed upgrades now, but face a contract from yesteryear. 

To make change happen quickly, we're told, is part of why the commission recently approved a no-bid, half-a-billion-dollar contract with the company that provides concessions in two of four terminals at Fort-Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. 

But such an argument speaks to why government leaders should be wary of long-term, no-bid contracts. 

Read the rest of the Editorial at:

As if we'd forgotten this three years before:
South Florida Sun-sentinel
Broward overpaid almost $1 million to clean airport, audit says
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
May 10, 2011

 FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward visitors overpaid almost $1 million to clean the airport over the 2008-09 budget years, and the county still pays more than other Florida airport authorities for janitorial work, the county auditor says.

The new audit raises an alarm about a $63 million cleaning contract the county has with Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc. Its 280 workers wash windows, clean toilets, vacuum carpets, and clean parking garages and sidewalks at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Read the rest of the article at:

The way the whole Uber fight has taken place in Broward and environs the past few months makes clear to me and many others that by almost any reasonable standard, Broward County Aviation Dir. Kent George has a lot to explain to taxpayers, residents and business community.
Especially about the self-evident problems at/around & w/FLL that he seems inclined not to either answer or be held publicly accountable for.

It's time to change that dynamic and the best way is by the injection of MORE Sunshine and the creation of a citizen-led Advisory Board that has both no aviation or hospitality lobbyists or reps and zero Broward County bureaucrats acting as "minders" to prevent the public from looking around and kicking the tires.
"Tires" we all have collectively helped to buy thru years and years of user fees.
Dave 
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Thursday, June 21, 2012

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport


Above, looking NW at the Broward County Government HQ at 115 S. Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. January 3, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

What's the difference between clean and Broward taxpayers 'being taken to the cleaners'? Bob Norman & Brittany Wallman on the firm charging Broward taxpayers a million dollars a month to clean-up Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; 

 WPLG-TV, Channel 10, Miami, FL
Broward Commission tosses low bid
By Bob Norman
Published On: May 02 2012 08:45:27 AM EDT  
Updated On: Jun 11 2012 11:58:07 AM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/blogs/bob-norman/Broward-Commission-tosses-low-bid/-/3223354/12481944/-/6dnvn7z/-/index.html
Be sure read the reader comments!

 Meanwhile, as the 13-month old Sun-Sentinel article below proves, just like the above, over a year ago, Seth Platt, supercilious flack-for-hire, and a living-and-breathing reminder of much of what currently ails the Broward Democratic Party with moderate voters, was trying to throw his light-weight around and kill the messenger.

 In 2011, his target was Broward County Auditor Evan Lukic and in 2012 it's Bob Norman of Channel 10 who pops Platt Junior's balloon full of hot air, bombast and self-importance.

 (This blog post today is one of the ones that got delayed by my bad service from AT&T last month, due to their server.) 

 http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-05-10/news/fl-janitorial-waste-20110509_1_cleaning-contract-airport-director-kent-george-county-auditor
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward overpaid almost $1 million to clean airport, audit says
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
May 10, 2011

FORT LAUDERDALE — Broward visitors overpaid almost $1 million to clean the airport over the 2008-09 budget years, and the county still pays more than other Florida airport authorities for janitorial work, the county auditor says.

The new audit raises an alarm about a $63 million cleaning contract the county has with Sunshine Cleaning Systems Inc. Its 280 workers wash windows, clean toilets, vacuum carpets, and clean parking garages and sidewalks at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

At about $7.56 of cleaning per square foot, Broward's airport is paying more than twice what Miami's airport pays for similar work, county auditor Evan Lukic says in the just-released audit.

Relatively little in Lukic's audit -- about $15,500 worth -- is tied to alleged overbillings by Sunshine Cleaning. Rather, the mistakes he points to, totaling $950,000, were the county's. And county officials, including Airport Director Kent George, say they'll accept responsibility.

"Our aviation personnel did not do a great job in administrating this contract,'' George said on Monday. "Changes have been made. And it won't happen again.''

County Administrator Bertha Henry wrote to commissioners in a memo Thursday that "the underlying cause for this problem is a combination of staff insufficiency and to a lesser extent, competency.''

County commissioners are scheduled to talk about the audit on Tuesday, though the company has asked for a postponement. They will also consider extending Sunshine's contracts to clean the library and the South Regional Courthouse.

The scope of the problem with the airport spreads beyond George's turf. Sunshine's contract was vetted by county purchasing director Brenda Billingsley, placed on the September 2008 county agenda for Lukic, Henry, county attorneys and others to review at the time, and then approved by county commissioners.

George said the audit didn't shake his support for Sunshine.

"The company's performance at the airport has been very, very acceptable,'' he said on Monday. "They have done a good job with an aging facility and a growing passenger base.''

The contract included annual 4.1 percent raises for the cleaners that were higher than they should have been, Lukic says.

Just a few weeks after the cleaning contract was approved, the county changed its Living Wage Ordinance in a way that could have saved taxpayers $950,000 on the cleaning contract. On top of that, Sunshine paid its employees the lower wage but got to keep the extra that the county paid, Lukic says in his audit.

Lobbyist-attorney George Platt, who represented Sunshine in the contract negotiations, said the county insisted on creating the deal the way it was. He said the extra money was spent on employee benefits.

"It's just wonderful you can have a Monday-morning quarterback who was on the field and is now finding fault with a process he was part of,'' Platt said.

In the Thursday memo to commissioners, Henry says, "gaps still remain'' in county staff's ability to watch over contracts.

She asked staff to review the way the contracts are negotiated and said she will report their findings in 90 days. She also said she agrees with Lukic that the airport cleaning contract must be put back out for competitive bids.

Here's what happened, according to those involved: Inflation was so high when the cleaning contract was in the works, at 5.8 percent, that the county was afraid to pay for a contract that used the Living Wage Ordinance as its basis. The county's Living Wage was tied directly to increases in inflation.

So Sunshine agreed to pay $13.24 an hour in wages the first year, with a flat 4.1 percent raise each of the next four years. The contract was approved on Sept. 16, 2008.

Weeks later, on Oct. 7, the county voted to change its Living Wage to limit annual increases.

Lukic says purchasing director Billingsley knew the Living Wage law was about to be changed and asked George's aviation staff to reflect it in the contract. Yet no one followed up to make sure the contract was changed during negotiations, according to the auditor.

Henry said in her memo that after lots of explanations to her from staff about what happened and why, she heard "none that is acceptable to me and it will be addressed accordingly.''
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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tonight's hearing on the Intermodal Center and People Mover b/w FLL and Port Everglades

I'm 50/50 on attending this, myself.
------------------------------

Public Hearing on the Draft Environmental Assessment for the Intermodal Center and People Mover

The public is invited to attend the Public Hearing and comment on the location, conceptual design, and effects of the proposed project. Read the Draft EA online and other locations where you read the actual document.

Broward County's Port Everglades and Aviation Department will hold a Public Hearing to discuss the Draft Environmental Assessment on the Intermodal Center and People Mover System.

Date Thursday, June 25, 2009

Time 6 -7 p.m. Review Exhibits and Oral Comments (in private)

Members of the project consultant team, staff from Port Everglades and the Aviation Department, and the Florida Department of Transportation staff will be available to answer questions during this period. Individuals can also record their comments in private.

7 - 8 p.m. Presentation and Public Comments

Location Aviation Department's Auditorium
100 Aviation Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315

Review and Comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment
The public is invited to review and comment on the Draft Environmental Assessment before July 10, 2009 to become part of the official record. See below for locations to view the document. Individuals can comment in three ways.

1. Provide an oral statement at the Public Workshop either in private from 6 - 7 p.m. or after the formal presentation.

2. Submit written comments during the meeting or mail them to Sambit Bhatta, P.E., Lea + Elliott, 5200 Blue Lagoon Drive, Suite 250, Miami, FL 33126

3. E-mail comments to Sambit B. at sambitb@leaelliott.com

Draft Environmental Assessment
Project Document Structure (PDF - 42 KB)
Administrative Action (PDF - 38 KB)
Chapter 1 - Purpose and Need (PDF - 628 KB)
Chapter 2 - Alternatives Considered (PDF - 1.94 MB)
Chapter 3 - Environmental Impacts (PDF - 4.05 MB)
Chapter 4 - Transportation Impacts ((PDF - 303 KB)
Chapter 5 - Financial Analysis (PDF - 213 KB)
Chapter 6 - Evaluation Alternatives (PDF - 2.16 MB)
Chapter 7 Consultation and Coordination (PDF - 232 KB)
Appendix A - List of Acronyms (PDF - 6.39 MB)

Engineering Report
Preliminary Engineering Report (PDF - 154 KB)
Part 1 of 4 (PDF - 3.45 MB)
Chapter 1 - Executive Summary
Chapter 2 - Purpose and Need
Chapter 3 - Introduction
Chapter 4 - Existing Conditions
Chapter 5 - Design Controls and Standards
Chapter 6 - Traffic
Part 2 of 4 (PDF - 7.8 MB)
Chapter 6 - Traffic (continued)
Chapter 7 - Corridor Analysis
Part 3 of 4 (PDF - 7.7 MB)
Chapter 7 - Corridor Analysis (continued)
Part 4 of 4 (PDF - 8.96 MB)
Chapter 8 - Alternative Analysis
Chapter 9 - Preliminary Design Analysis

Locations to Review Document
The actual document is available to review at the following locations:

Broward County Aviation Department
Community Outreach Office
550 NW 10th Street
Dania Beach, FL 33004
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday (954-359-6977)

Broward County Port Everglades Department
1850 Eller Drive
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
(954-523-3404)

Broward County Main Library
100 South Andrews Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
(954-357-7444)

-------------------------------------

There are some excellent illustrations

and designs on this particular project

that are well worth examining:

http://www.leaelliott.com/assets/files/BrowardCounty%20IntermodalCenter.pdf


This is the new Port Everglades' website:

http://www.porteverglades.net/about-us/



Take a trip on the South Beach Hoosier
Time Machine and go back to the first
time the Herald archives contained that
odd word, intermodal, for Miami-Dade
and Broward Counties.

For Miami-Dade, that was Sept. 1, 1982,
when I was still at IU in Bloomington,
then and now, one of America's Five
Most Beautiful College Campuses.

A week before that first article appeared,
I foolishly moved into Colonial Crest
Apts. at 703 West Gourley Pike,
northwest of IU's campus, seduced
by its well-deserved rep for a
high-sociability factor and truly
great spring/summer pool scene,
but sadly for car-less me, it was
located not-so-close to campus.

(And home to my great IU friends
Jill Johnson, Colleen Cole, Julie
Swann, and the Yoakum sisters,
Kate and Karen, each in their own
way, bright, funny, vivacious and
charming IU Hoosier Ambassadors
of goodwill -and good times!)

In retrospect, I could've used an
intermodal station of my own, so
I wouldn't have to walk up and down
so many snowy hills -esp. at night-
to get from the north campus bus
stop alongside Memorial Stadium,
or the nearby food store, the IGA.

Yes, the fall of '82, a year before
Dan Marino was here, but back
when South Florida had a powerful
House Appropriations Cardinal in
Congress, Bill Lehman, the
2nd-most honest Florida politician
I ever met, after only Lawton Chiles,
and Arthur Teele was an otherwise
obscure federal agency
head:

Miami Herald

METRORAIL BEGINNING NEW LOOP: TRANSIT LINK BRINGS FANFARE

By FITZ McADEN Herald Staff Writer

September 1, 1982

Politicians and transit officials gathered under an I-95 ramp Tuesday for the ceremonial start of work on Miami's Downtown People Mover, a $116.9-million transit novelty.

"It's a great day for Miami," said U.S. Rep. William Lehman, a North Miami Democrat instrumental in obtaining federal funding for the project. "Nothing can contribute more... than a great urban mass transportation system."

Tuesday's groundbreaking was at the future site of the people mover's operations and maintenance building, a block south of the Dade County courthouse. Work on the $2-million structure is just beginning, although assembly of other project pieces has been under way for more than a year.

"We applaud and encourage your success," said Arthur Teele, administrator of the federal Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA), who was among the dignitaries.

Teele chose the ceremony to confirm that UMTA, which already has pledged $64.1 million for the people mover, will provide another $3.96 million for unexpectedly high costs of building Metrorail's downtown Government Center Station.

Dade officials asked for the additional money after the estimated cost of the station increased $5.2 million, to $17.7 million. Costs rose after transit officials decided to make Government Center an "intermodal station" where passengers could transfer to and from the people mover, the Metrorail rapid- transit trains and Metrobuses.

Government Center initially was not designed as a transfer point, officials said.

Teele also reiterated a pledge to give Dade $10 million more for Metrorail next year. The money is to compensate the county for the higher-than-expected costs of land needed for Metrorail and for inflation that outran estimates. It was included in a budget bill passed by Congress but was jeopardized when President Reagan vetoed the bill last week.

Teele vowed that Dade will get the $10 million anyway. "Somehow we're going to find it," he said. "The administration is very much opposed to it, but I'm the chief transit person in the administration."

The money will be taken from UMTA's current budget, he said. "We won't be requesting additional money
from Congress, but will be shifting priorities around."

The money ensures that work won't slow down on Dade's three- tiered transit network, Dade officials said. When it opens in 1984, the system will include a larger Metrobus fleet, the 20.5-mile Metrorail line and the people mover.

The system is supposed to work this way: People commuting downtown from outlying neighborhoods will board buses that take them to Metrorail stations. From there, trains will shuttle them downtown. At Government Center, they will transfer to the people mover.

The entire ride is expected to cost at least $1 although the Metro Commission has not yet set fares. A ride on the people mover alone probably will cost less than 50 cents, officials said.

The people mover will loop 1.9 miles around Miami's central business district. The system, officially called the Downtown Component of Metrorail, is unique in two ways, transit officials said:

* It will be used to siphon off riders from the Metrorail rapid-transit system running from Dadeland to Hialeah and distribute them at 10 stations downtown. Never before have two different types of transit systems been meshed that way.

* "It's the first application of an automated, rubber-tired system in a downtown environment," said J.A. Geikler, general manager of the transportation division of Westinghouse Electric Corp., the firm building the people mover.

Systems with almost identical design have been installed at amusement parks including Busch Gardens, and at such airports as Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Atlanta, for example -- but never downtown.

Because of its differences, Miami's people mover "will attract widespread attention," Geikler predicted.

Like existing people-mover systems, Miami's will be computer controlled. Its 12 cars, with a capacity of 155 passengers each, will be electric powered and will travel clockwise and counterclockwise on two concrete guideways. Trains will stop at stations every 90 seconds and complete the loop almost every 10 minutes. The system can carry 7,200 passengers per hour.

"The people mover is an absolutely essential element," Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre said. "Now you'll be able to go all around this damn town."

In addition to Ferre and Lehman, other public officials who attended the groundbreaking included Congressman Dante Fascell (D., Fla.), Gov. Bob Graham, Dade County Manager Merrett Stierheim, Metro Mayor Steve Clark and other county commissioners.

Plans for the people mover have been evolving since 1976, when UMTA encouraged U.S. cities to compete for federal funding.

The people mover's original 1979 budget of $76 million has grown now to $116.9 million. In addition to the $64.1 million from UMTA, the state will contribute $11.7 million; the county, $17.2 million; and the city, $2.3 million.

Another $1.6 million worth of construction will be done by developers who will tie their projects into the people mover. Finally, downtown businesses will pay a special assessment to support a $20-million bond issue that the county floated for the people mover.

"As far as the cost is concerned, I'm comfortable with $116.9 million and prepared to stick with it for now," people mover manager Simon Zweighaft said.

He expects the cost of some items, such as the people mover's guideway, to bust budget, however. Estimated at $14 million, the guideway probably will cost at least $20 million, he said.

But costs on other items have come down. The contract for the operations and maintenance building, for example, was $400,000 less than expected.

To keep costs down, transit officials plan to eliminate or scale back several features originally planned for stations, just as they did to reduce Metrorail's $120-million overrun.

"You can't call them cutbacks," Zweighaft insisted. "These are just some features that the architects have put in their plans. We've never accepted them."

Tentatively targeted for elimination or reduction are:

* Large planting boxes planned for the outside of some stations.

* Special paving in sidewalks around stations. Architectural plans call for a special, brownish-colored pigment to be used to color the concrete in the sidewalks. "The idea is that it will make pedestrians aware that they're around a transit station," Zweighaft said. "We'll still have some of the sidewalks, but not quite as extensively."

* Stainless steel handrails for stairways. They may be replaced with aluminum rails.

* Concrete posts forming a barrier between the ground floor of the stations and the street. The posts would have prevented errant cars from entering the station area.

* Ceramic tile. Some was planned for floors, some for walls in stairwells. "We're taking a close look at it," Zweighaft said.

* Aluminum grating for false ceilings in stations. The grating would have been hung from ceilings and "would have been nice visually, but it's not essential," Zweighaft said.

"None of these changes would affect the overall operation of the system," he said.
-------------------------------------
Broward County is on the move!.

Miami Herald

NEW TERMINAL WOULD LINK TRANSIT SYSTEMS

By DAN RAY Herald Staff Writer
May 4, 1983
A new terminal for mass transit systems in downtown Fort Lauderdale that would link the existing county bus system and the proposed people mover and commuter rail systems was embraced by the Broward County Commission Tuesday.

The $12.7-million facility would replace the inadequate existing downtown Fort Lauderdale bus terminal, county mass transit officials said.

But if the proposed people mover and commuter rail systems ever are built, the building's design will allow it to become a terminal for passengers on those systems as well.

Commissioners unanimously approved the first step in building the facility at NW First Avenue and Broward Boulevard -- a grant application for $2.9 million available to Broward through the federal Urban Mass Transportation Act (UMTA).

The money would come from the gasoline tax increase of about 5 cents per gallon imposed by the federal government in April.

"We're very excited about it," said Joel Volinski, an assistant county administrator who is acting Mass Transit Division director. "The existing facility is somewhat substandard, and the area we're looking at provides a fantastic opportunity to expand and connect with the other modes of mass transit."

The existing terminal at NW First Street and NW First Avenue, just east of the proposed location, is little more than an open-air waiting area. It was designed to handle 36 buses an hour, Volinski said. It now handles 35 buses an hour.

The proposed two-story terminal would allow more comfortable waiting areas for bus passengers and could accommodate passengers for the other systems, should they be built.

On the west side of the proposed terminal are the Florida East Coast Railway tracks. The state is conducting a $500,000 study to see whether these tracks, or the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad tracks to the west, could be used for a tri-county commuter rail system linking Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

On the north side of the proposed terminal is NW Second Avenue, which is along the route of the proposed people mover system, a fixed-track loop through downtown Fort Lauderdale being pushed by downtown interests.

The "Downtown Fort Lauderdale Intermodal Mass Transit Terminal" as it is officially called, would be built with 80- per-cent federal money, 10-per-cent state money and 10-per- cent county money.

Broward County and the Florida Department of Transportation are near an agreement to provide the state's share of $1.3 million. Broward commissioners have not set aside their share, which would come from property tax revenue.

The terminal could be built in three to five years, depending on the willingness of the 11 property owners in the area to sell their land, said Victor Iskowitz, the Mass Transit Division's manager of development planning and marketing.

If the owners do not agree to sell and their land must be acquired through condemnation, the project will take five years, Iskowitz said.
----------
Meanwhile, 26 years later...intermodal
has become codeword for turkey.
What do you think?

Miami Herald
STATE BUDGET

Group finds Dade 'turkeys'

By Steve Bousquet and Alex Leary Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau
May 27, 2009
TALLAHASSEE -- Confronting their tightest budget year in decades, Florida legislators squandered relatively few tax dollars on hometown projects known as "turkeys," according to a statewide research group.

In its annual "turkey watch" report, Florida TaxWatch cited 10 projects worth $15 million that should be vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist -- the fewest such projects in the last 15 years that TaxWatch has been combing state budgets for questionable spending. The group reported $110 million in turkeys last year and $256 million the year before that.

Nearly all of this year's "turkeys" are in Miami-Dade and the Tampa Bay area. Among the turkeys cited by TaxWatch:

* $3 million to retrofit traffic signals so they are less vulnerable to hurricanes;

* $1 million for the South Florida Intermodal Logistics Center;

* $1 million for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis;

* $1 million for Miami-Dade Diabetes Research Institute;

* $250,000 for Goodwill Industries of South Florida;

* $200,000 for the South Florida Charter Autism School, and

* $100,000 for a task force on African-American history.

TaxWatch defines a turkey as a project that surfaces in the budget conference committee stage near the end of the session. The group cited the April report by a Leon County grand jury that indicted ousted House Speaker Ray Sansom and former Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg and harshly criticized the secretive nature of last-minute budget deals.

Several Miami-Dade projects landed on the TaxWatch list because they were added in conference. That was the case with a $1 million appropriation for the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, which is affiliated with the University of Miami.

"Curing paralysis is something every citizen in Florida should support," Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, one of two House budget chairmen, said when told the appropriation made the list. "The center has made great strides."

Asked if he agreed that there are turkeys in the budget, Crist said: "There may be a few. We'll have to decide."
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Miami Herald
MIAMI-DADE TRANSIT

Metrorail set to grow at airport

By Matthew Haggman and Charles Rabin
May 2, 2009
Seven years after Miami-Dade voters approved a half-penny sales tax to significantly expand mass transit, ground was broken Friday on the first major rail project bankrolled by that effort: A long-sought Metrorail link to Miami International Airport.

The celebration announcing construction of the $526 million, 2.4-mile rail line -- running from Earlington Heights station to the Miami Intermodal Center next to the airport -- marks the biggest milestone in the ongoing effort to create meaningful public transportation in Miami since Metrorail was started 25 years ago.

The Miami Intermodal Center will become a central transportation hub, linking airline, bus and rail travelers with a centralized rental car facility. It's expected to be operational by 2012.

END OF THE LINE?

But the Friday ceremony also served as a reminder of how voters were woefully over-promised by county leaders earlier this decade. The Earlington Heights project may well prove to be the only major Metrorail expansion produced from the tax.

In 2002 Miami-Dade County officials said the half-cent tax would deliver 88.9 miles of new rail lines crisscrossing the county as part of the People's Transportation Plan. The county also promised new buses, improved traffic signalization and roadway improvements.

Instead, nearly three-fourths of the $900 million collected for new projects has been spent on inflated salaries, bloated staff and maintenance of existing operations. There is scant evidence the county will be able to do much more than the 2.4-mile connector, which starts construction Monday.

"I think it will be difficult," said Commissioner Katy Sorenson.

PRIORITY CHALLENGE

Commissioner Barbara Jordan, who chairs the subcommittee overseeing transit, said she's exploring public-private partnerships to pay for other promised rail lines, such as the long-proposed route to Miami Gardens or westward to Florida International University.

"Our challenge now is to creatively fund other corridors on a priority basis," said County Manager George Burgess, who said voters were over-promised in 2002.

The county's failure to fulfill its promises has prompted Commissioner Carlos Gimenez to sponsor legislation that would give voters the chance to repeal the half-penny tax.

"Government shouldn't fool people to get more revenue, and that's what Miami-Dade County did," said Gimenez, who did not attend the Friday ceremony, but is expected to present his proposal at Tuesday's commission meeting.

Once completed, the Earlington Heights link will allow riders to go directly from points such as downtown Miami or the Brickell area to the airport. Riders starting in Hialeah and other stops along the north end of the line will have to transfer at Earlington Heights.

Foundation work for Miami Central Station, the Metrorail stop at the Miami Intermodel Center, is set to begin next week. The half-penny tax will pay for the majority of the $526 million project, with the Florida Department of Transportation contributing $100 million.

"This will be a signature project of the People's Transportation Plan," said Harpal S. Kapoor, director of Miami-Dade Transit, who took over the troubled agency two years ago and sought cost savings. "My department will make this project a reality."
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