A $360 million plan to build a light-rail loop in South Beach has been cut down because of high costs and pushback from the community.
Miami Beach’s administration has also missed a 60-day deadline to hash out an “interim agreement” — a pre-contract agreement that is supposed to outline a process and timeline for the real contract negotiations. Nearly twice as many days have passed since the City Commission chose a bidder in July, but the city manager doesn’t expect to have an agreement until November or December.
City Manager Jimmy Morales told commissioners last week that he recommended reducing the project’s scope because of issues with funding, costs and logistics. Beach officials are reducing the construction cost to about $244 million by scaling back a full loop around the heart of South Beach to a track that would run along Fifth Street and up Washington Avenue to Miami Beach Senior High School.
Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.
