Miami-Dade County’s Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride/
Bus Terminal Facility Earns Envision Silver Award for Sustainability
The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) announced today that the Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride/Bus Terminal Facility (Tamiami Station) in Miami-Dade County is the recent recipient of the Envision® Silver award for sustainable infrastructure.
To earn an Envision award, a project must deliver a range of environmental, social, and economic benefits to the host and affected communities and have these benefits validated through a rigorous third-party review process against the Envision sustainable infrastructure framework.
Project Background and Context
The objective of the Tamiami Station is to offer customers a safe, comfortable, and convenient public transportation option connecting to major employment, education, retail, cultural, and recreational destinations. The Tamiami Station is part of the SR 836 Express Bus Service and will primarily operate on the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836). It is part of the county’s rapid public transit expansion initiative along the East-West Corridor. This project aligns with the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan, the Five-Year Implementation Plan of the People’s Transportation Plan (PTP), and the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).
“Receiving the first-ever certification at any level from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure for a County project demonstrates that hard work and commitment to the community pay off. This award is a direct result of the outstanding collaboration between DTPW, the County’s Office of Resilience and private partners in order to ensure the project’s infrastructure achieved high marks for sustainability and resiliency from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.
“The Tamiami Station exemplifies how the County can plan and develop public infrastructures that not only create positive social and economic impacts for the community but also provide environmental benefits. The Envision Silver Award is a great honor for Miami-Dade County and our community,” Gimenez added.
The Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) worked in close collaboration with AECOM Technical Services to deliver this award-winning sustainable project. Construction of this project began on February 10, 2020 and the project is scheduled to open to the public in the fall of 2021.
“Being able to provide new mass transit options to Miami-Dade residents and visitors will be a vital factor for the recovery of the County’s economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” said Alice N. Bravo, P.E., director of Transportation and Public Works for Miami-Dade County.
“We are honored to have been recognized by the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure for the planning, design and construction of the Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride facility, which will improve mobility and support a more livable community,” added Bravo.
“The Department of Transportation and Public Works’ Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride/Bus Terminal Facility is a shining example of how our County is committed to building and operating more efficiently through sustainable building practices. Through the Sustainable Buildings Program, the County can ensure the value of its capital assets as well as support positive resilience, health, and economic impacts to the community over the long term. Sustainable design and construction are critically important in our work to reduce greenhouse gases, improve air quality and build more resilient infrastructure,” said James Murley, Chief Resilience Officer of Miami-Dade County. “We are delighted with this recognition of the high bar the Department of Transportation and Public Works has set for its resilience efforts.”
Melissa Peneycad, managing director, ISI: “The Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride/Bus Terminal Facility is a testament to DTPW’s leadership in and commitment to sustainability through the expansion of rapid public transportation. This project will lead to many desirable outcomes for the community at large and users of the public transportation network, including reduced traffic congestion and increased convenience, comfort, and safety getting to and from major employment and recreational destinations. ISI is pleased to present the Tamiami Station project with an Envision Silver award for sustainable infrastructure.”
The Envision sustainable infrastructure framework assesses project sustainability across five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Resilience. These key areas contribute to positive social, economic, and environmental impacts on a community during the planning, design, and construction of infrastructure projects. Key factors contributing to the Tamiami Station earning an Envision Silver award include:
Improving community mobility and access: The project has been planned and designed to encourage the community to use public transportation. The project will ease traffic congestion and improve mobility which will support a more livable community. The layout of the park-and-ride component of this project has been designed with safety and convenience as a top priority for those arriving by car, by bike and by foot. For example, pedestrian safety is accomplished in part through the provision of a direct path that connects the Tamiami Station to an adjacent shopping mall and cyclists are encouraged to use the station’s bike storage facilities.
Improving infrastructure integration: This project integrates well with the broader community and is expected to serve as a key component of Miami’s East-West transportation corridor. It will provide a much-needed premium transit connection between western portions of the county, the Miami Intermodal Center (the central location connecting bus routes, the Metrorail, Tri-rail, car rentals, and automated people mover to the airport), and downtown Miami. Tamiami Station has been designed as a terminus for several local bus routes. The park-and-ride component of the project will reduce traffic congestion in and around Miami. This project is expected to be a catalyst for a Community Urban Center – a hub for urban development intensification in Miami-Dade County – around which a more compact and efficient urban development will occur.
Environmental benefits: The project significantly increased the amount of impervious surface area throughout the site. However, full on-site stormwater retention will be achieved using French drains to meet variable height tailwater elevations.
All existing invasive species including roots and other debris were removed from the site through the initial clearing and grubbing process. Subsequently, material with high organic content that is unsuitable for use as fill was removed using the demucking procedure (a form of soil improvement prior to construction) for a depth of approximately 3-4 ft; this material will be processed and reused on site as topsoil. Project landscaping uses only locally appropriate and noninvasive plant species and the project has a management plan in place for controlling invasive species during project operations.
Preparing for long-term adaptability: The project team conducted a comprehensive assessment of climate change threats and found the main issues are sea-level rise, storm surges, extreme heat, and flooding from extreme precipitation. To address these issues, the project team worked collaboratively with the county’s Office of Resilience early in project design to ensure compliance with the local Sea Level Rise Ordinance. Regional sea level projections and groundwater elevations were reviewed and accounted for in the project design. In order to address extreme heat and precipitation projections, the design team included pedestrian canopies to protect the public from rain and sun along the bus bays and into parking areas.
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MEDIA CONTACTS:
Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works
Luis Espinoza, Special Projects Administrator
Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure
Dyan Lee, Director of Marketing and Communications
lee@sustainableinfrastructure.org
PROJECT ORGANIZATION INFORMATION:
About Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works:
The primary objective for the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW) is to serve as the County’s mobility manager, overseeing the County’s surface transportation network and multi-modal operation.
DTPW evaluates all transportation options while leveraging existing infrastructure and identifying short-term improvements that will increase mobility and ease congestion. DTPW’s focuses on the integration of public and private transit, paratransit, pedestrian amenities, bicycle facilities, bicycle-sharing, ride sharing, car-sharing, and personal automobile modes by advancing seamless planning based on mobility.
The Envision® process for the Tamiami Station Park-and-Ride/Bus Terminal Facility was led by the DTPW Engineering, Planning & Development staff.
About AECOM Technical Services Inc.: AECOM is a global network of experts working with clients, communities and colleagues to develop and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most complex challenges. AECOM is contracted to provide all design services, construction administration, and Envision consulting services. The Envision process was supported by Genevieve Cave-Hunt, Bettina Kaes and Sananda Mukherjee of AECOM.
About JVA Engineering Contractor, Inc. (JVA): JVA is a Miami-based roadway contractor established in 2002. Since then, JVA has successfully delivered on-time and on budget projects to most multiple government and private organizations throughout South Florida, always with the outmost regard to minimizing waste and environmental impact. At JVA we are always seeking to make the most of all resources to ensure these goals. JVA’s sustainability and environmental care efforts are led by Cesar Gonzalez (Project Manager) and Jose M. Alvarez, president.
About A&P Consulting Transportation Engineers: A&P Consulting Transportation Engineers is a multi-disciplinary engineering consultant located in South Florida whose mission is to provide technical excellence in design and construction. A&P’s Construction Engineering and Inspection (CEI) Department is committed to closely monitoring our projects to ensure that the sustainable practices of the Envision framework are incorporated in the field. As such, our CEI Senior Project Engineer Erik Sibila, PE and CEI Project Engineer Alain Jimenez, PE are Envision Sustainability Professionals and are overseeing the daily operations of the MD DTPW Tamiami Park and Ride project.
About Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and Envision®: ISI is a non-profit 501(c)(3) headquartered in Washington, DC. ISI administers the Envision sustainable infrastructure framework and rating system. Envision is the product of a joint collaboration between ISI, which was founded by three national engineering associations: American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and American Public Works Association (APWA), and the Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure at Harvard University Graduate School of Design: www.sustainableinfrastructure.org
