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Written by Miami Today on January 7, 2026
Escalators at four Metromover stations that haven’t worked since 2022 may finally be replaced under an emergency contract due for OK this month.
The county would spend $5.72 million of transportation surtaxes to have sole bidder Magnum Construction Management (MCM) do the job.
The county in June 2023 had “declared an emergency to expedite the full removal and replacement of four escalators determined to be beyond repair at the Eleventh Street, Adrienne Arsht Center, Financial District and School Board Metromover stations,” Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote in a December memo.
“These escalators serve as critical passenger conveyance equipment at high volume stations, where prolonged outages would disrupt mobility and impede ADA access,” the memo said.
The emergency replacement order came after a May 2023 letter from the mayor told another contractor “to address the units that can be repaired as swiftly as possible.”
At the time, the Arsht Station escalator had been broken 217 days, the School Board Station escalator 204 days, the Financial District Station in Brickell escalator 199 days and the Eleventh Street Station escalator 384 days.
Those outdoor escalators couldn’t be fixed, Robert McClellan of the Department of Transportation and Public Works told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust in June 2023.
“The corrosion on there is significant, so we’ve elected to go into a procurement to do a rip-out-and-replace for those four units to get those completely rehabilitated. So, take the old units out, get new units in,” he said.
In July 2023 the county sought quotes to remove and replace the escalators from 68 prequalified firms. Only MCM bid, the county negotiated prices for the emergency work, the transportation trust last month approved the spending, and the county commission could vote Jan. 21 to give the go-ahead for work.
The trust was told new escalators could last seven to 12 years.