FL: Train-tunnel debate: Fort Lauderdale mayor blasts county for ‘impossible’ deadlines

Fort Lauderdale’s fight to persuade the county to build a tunnel for commuter rail is nowhere near over.

The experts say it will take at least four years to build a train tunnel, Mayor Dean Trantalis said Tuesday. But the county wants it done in two.

“That’s a poison pill,” Trantalis said during the commission’s afternoon meeting. “There’s no way we’re going to get any contractor to build this tunnel in two years. It’s impossible.”

The county is also giving the city an Oct. 1 deadline to complete a feasibility and cost study for a tunnel. If Fort Lauderdale can’t make the deadline, the county wants the city to agree to a bridge.

“This commission has never agreed that the bridge option is the default option,” Trantalis said. “We’re not going to say we agree to a bridge just because we’re all focused on getting commuter rail. We’re not going to compromise the good things we’re doing in Fort Lauderdale just to have commuter rail run through our city.”

County officials are not giving themselves a similar deadline to research the bridge option, Trantalis argued.

“They’re nowhere near getting final numbers or feasibility or someone to construct the bridge approach,” he said. “So they’re imposing deadlines on us that they themselves cannot achieve.”

The county-imposed deadlines were spelled out in a March 3 letter from Broward Mayor Beam Furr to Trantalis.

The county wants a formal proposal from a developer for the construction, operation and maintenance of the tunnel, along with documentation showing that tunnel can be fully operational tunnel within a 24-month period; a proposed financial plan from the city that addresses how tunnel construction and operations/maintenance costs can be paid given the county’s fixed commitment; and cost estimates, financial plans and a pro forma from the developer for a period of performance for no less than 30 years.

Commissioner Ben Sorensen argued that the county is fully open to building a tunnel and is willing to give Fort Lauderdale the time to see it research that option.

“They’re really operating in good faith,” Sorensen told Trantalis. “Let’s give them a chance, mayor.”

Trantalis argued the county needs to extend its deadlines and put it in writing.

“From day one, I always feel like we have to prove ourselves to the county,” he said. “Every time I’ve met with them, I’ve said, ‘Let’s work together as partners and focus on getting a tunnel built.’ And never have they ever said, ‘Yes, we’re willing to do that.’ All they said is you have to prove to us that it’s doable. Prove it, prove it, prove it. Like we’re begging at their feet.”

Trantalis said he’d like to see the county put the bridge option through the same scrutiny that it’s applying to a tunnel.

“You can’t just wish a bridge is going to happen,” he said. “You have to consider what it takes to get there. And one of the things it takes to get there is shutting down Broward Boulevard for two years.”

And it doesn’t end there, Trantalis said.

It will also require setting up barges in the middle of the river to provide a base for construction materials, he said. And that will mean shutting down marine traffic intermittently during what might be a five-year construction project for a bridge, he added.

“The great thing about the tunnel is there’s absolutely zero impact to the neighborhood,” Trantalis said. “There’s zero impact to the marine industry. There’s zero impact to anything. It just gets built underground and then we cut the ribbon.”

Furr was not at Fort Lauderdale’s meeting but was watching remotely, he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

“I’m encouraged that we have dialogue going,” Furr said. “I sent the letter and I expected some tweaking.”

Furr said he was not surprised by the mayor’s reaction to the Oct. 1 deadline.

“The mayor was concerned that Oct. 1 was a drop-dead deadline,” Furr said. “But if they’re in the middle of negotiations, there’s some flexibility there.”

The county might be willing to extend its two-year deadline on the construction of the tunnel, Furr said.

“We’ll see how long it will take,” Furr said. “I’m hoping we can both agree to go forward with a local preferred alternative that would not be specific to a bridge or tunnel. It gives them a chance to see what they can come up with.”

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