A Baylink transit line between Miami and Miami Beach that has been a 40-year dream has cleared objections of the City of Miami Beach and a National Environmental Policy Act Review for an elevated Metromover on the MacArthur Causeway and is moving ahead. “We plan on moving this project forward expeditiously,” Josiel Ferrer-Diaz, deputy director and chief project delivery officer of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust last week. The trust would provide funds to meld with federal money for the new route, whose cost has been pegged at $1 billion to connect with downtown Miami’s Metromover on a one-seat ride to Miami Beach. A later segment of Baylink is to run from downtown to the Design District. The US Coast Guard, which is the lead federal agency on the project because it would pass over Biscayne Bay to link the cities, “won’t seek any changes under the [environmental policy] act, which is good news,” Mr. Ferrer-Diaz told the trust. His department is now looking for a traffic analysis that the state requested in order to move forward, using mostly local funds, he said. After Miami Beach earlier opposed the project’s route and transit mode, he said, the transportation department reached out to the Coast Guard and “they were not considering any changes in classification.” The city has no formal control over the transit route or mode, although trust Chairman Robert Wolfarth said in June that federal agencies “don’t want to go to a community that’s fighting with each other not wanting to have transportation corridors.” Baylink replaces a $1.3 billion monorail previously proposed by private developers. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava changed those plans to switch to a government financed and constructed Metromover link connecting to other county transportation as opposed to a standalone system. “What type of project are we looking at?” Mr. Wolfarth asked last week. “What does that link look like?” The project remains what the mayor endorsed, Mr. Ferrer-Diaz said, with an elevated guide for an automated passenger mover. “That would be along the MacArthur Causeway and connecting onto Fifth Street, and the terminus right now as we have it … is between Euclid Avenue and Washington … just west of Washington Avenue. The first station is Lenox Avenue and then just west of Washington.” Miami Beach several years ago decided to develop a bus connector from the Washington Avenue station to the Miami Beach Convention Center at 19th Street, 14 blocks north. The city is working closely with the county transportation department to develop that route up Washington Avenue and mesh the timing with that of Baylink, Mr. Ferrer-Diaz said, and to be sure “there’s synergy between both projects.” Earlier this year Baylink had a listed construction start of 2025 with a 2029 completion, but the schedule was set aside as Miami Beach passed a resolution about the route, traffic, the environment and public security. “We’re taking that feedback into consideration and then we’ll come back to the trust to update you about the next steps of the project,” Eulois Cleckley, head of the transportation and public works department, told the transportation trust in June. “We are out there fighting with many other large cities in the country that would love to be able to get the money that we’re getting from the federal government,” Mr. Wolfarth noted then. Related Posts:County puts Baylink on track for 2029 Miami Beach runsTransportation trust nearly derails Miami Beach…North Corridor rapid rail transit still a 12-year waitFYI Miami: June 6, 2024South Dade bus rapid transit coming ‘sometime’ in 2025The post Baylink transit linking Miami Beach-Miami rolling ahead appeared first on Miami Today.