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Written by Miami Today on October 22, 2025
Work will take longer and cost more at the Dadeland South Metrorail Station to ease transfers between Metrorail and bus rapid transit to Homestead that starts next week.
A July 2023 contract to make the station an intermodal hub was to last 685 days – ready for opening of the South Corridor bus system – and cost $66.8 million. The new time is 949 days, long after bus rapid transit (BRT) is in use, and cost $6.9 million more.
The county Appropriations Committee unanimously supported the change last week after Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez was reassured that funds for the extra cost would come from transportation surtaxes, not the county budget.
The work at the Dadeland South station is likely to affect BRT operations, Alex Barrios, assistant director for construction of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works, told the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust in September. “It may affect our run time slightly” on the 20-mile transitway trip, he said.
The extended time is not due to contractors NV2A Group, Stacy Miller, the county’s transportation director, told the Appropriations Committee.
“We had to make some changes to the physical location of where BRT service will be provided, also escalator replacement” and more, she said.
The changes will integrate in-route chargers for the bus fleet at the north terminal of the South Corridor, said a memo from Jimmy Morales, the county’s chief operating officer. “Originally deferred to a future contract, inclusion now ensures seamless integration with station architecture, avoids redundant construction and generates long-term cost savings,” he wrote.
The BRT service area is also being reconfigured “to improve bus mobility, enhance driver safety and support independent bay arrivals and departures,” he wrote, and once it’s designed, the county will negotiate the cost of those upgrades and OK another contract change at a higher cost.