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With a runway extension project under way at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Fla., Florida East Coast Railway L.L.C. (FEC) now is operating two 80-car unit trains daily to and from the construction site to deliver materials. The 351-mile regional expects to move about 15,000 tons of aggregate each day while the existing runway is extended, widened and raised.
 
FEC loads rail cars at quarries near Miami then transports the aggregate to the airport site, where the material is loaded onto the runway extension contractor’s trucks.
 
The railroad began building a spur July 2 and the first unit train rolled into place July 23 — a “remarkable construction feat” in such a short timeframe, FEC officials said in a prepared statement. The project involved the installation of 8,000 feet of track with more than 3,000 steel ties using 136-pound welded rail and ballast. The spur was connected to a mainline in record time, FEC officials said.
 
The 3.5 million tons of aggregate that will be moved for the project equates to more than 375,000 truckloads and empties running back and forth on area highways between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, said FEC President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Hertwig.

“Our goal is to help alleviate congestion in that area,” he said. “We invested in the track and the unit train operation in order to do our part to address congestion and reduce emissions during the airport runway construction.”

Meanwhile, FEC also is involved in an ongoing project at the Port of Miami that involves the rehabilitation of a bascule bridge connecting the port and a rail yard, construction of an on-port rail facility and modifications to the railroad’s Hialeah Yard to accommodate intermodal volume growth. In addition, the port is constructing two tunnel tubes under Biscayne Bay to enable trucks to access the port from nearby interstates and reduce downtown traffic.

On July 31, the port marked the halfway point in the tubes’ boring process. A tunnel-boring machine completed the first tunnel tube, keeping the project on pace for completion in May 2014. Each tunnel tube will accommodate two lanes of traffic.
 
The tunnel project is managed by a public-private partnership between Miami Access Tunnel, Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Transportation and city of Miami.