Miami roadway program earns ASCE award

MIAMI — The Miami Intermodal Center’s (MIC) Roadway Improvements Program, built by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Project of the Year Award. Sponsored by the ASCE’s Miami-Dade Branch, the award recognizes outstanding civil engineering achievements that represent “a significant contribution to civil engineering progress and society,” according to the award criteria. The award was presented to FDOT and the MIC Roadway Improvements Program design engineering firms at the local ASCE Annual Meeting.

“We accomplished the work through exceptional interagency cooperation and an interdisciplinary management group,” said Gus Pego, FDOT District Six secretary of transportation. “They are what distinguished the Roadway Improvements Program and made it an outstanding example of an innovative civil engineering project.”

The Roadway Improvements Program was among South Florida’s most complex construction projects. Completed in the midst of a heavily congested traffic corridor, FDOT employed innovative management techniques, including formation of the MIC Steering Committee, a high-level interagency body created specifically to address and resolve the needs of those entities with interests and involvement in the MIC Program.

The MIC Public Affairs Program conceived a Comprehensive Community Awareness Program known as the One Stop Shop, a traveler information service providing property owners and the traveling public detour and closure information and the highest level of safety. The intricate nature of the project required careful coordination with design teams, governmental agencies, utility companies, and Miami International Airport to maintain the airport’s 34 million annual international and domestic arrivals and departures, as well as to ensure that the project got done on time and on budget with minimized interruptions.

The ASCE award criteria included innovative application of new or existing technology, future value to the engineering profession, social and economic considerations, complexity of the project, exceeding client needs, contribution to the well-being of people and communities, resourcefulness in planning and solving design challenges, pioneering in use of materials and methods, innovations in construction, impact of physical environment, and beneficial as well as adverse effects of the project, including aesthetic value.

The $184 million Roadway Improvements Program is the first major component of the $1.7 billion MIC Program to be completed. Next will be the Rental Car Center, scheduled to open in spring 2010. The MIA Mover will follow in fall 2011. The Miami Central Station and an 8-acre Joint Development component are also being planned. For details on the MIC Program and its components, visit www.micdot.com.