{"id":342877,"date":"2026-07-16T23:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342877\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T23:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:58:19","slug":"ludlam-trail-cost-miami-dade-42m-with-nothing-built","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/342877\/","title":{"rendered":"Ludlam Trail cost Miami-Dade $42M with nothing built"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/p>\n

A drone view looking north shows a section of the disused railway that will be converted into the Ludlam Trail near the intersection of Coral Way and Southwest 70th Avenue in west Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

More than a decade after Miami-Dade commissioners approved converting an abandoned rail corridor into a six-mile trail, the Herald Editorial Board argues taxpayers have been left with a fenced-off corridor and no answers. The opinion piece calls the delay a test of whether the county can deliver on its promises.<\/p>\n

FULL STORY: Ludlam Trail has cost Miami-Dade taxpayers $42M. Where is it? | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are key takeaways:<\/p>\n

The Editorial Board argues $42 million has been spent since 2015 with no final design, no signed contract and no construction start date \u2014 and says the county\u2019s silence is more frustrating than the delay itself.Officials have cited a \u201ccone of silence\u201d rule on pending contracts, but the board counters that the rule doesn\u2019t stop the county from explaining how the money was spent or setting a completion date.A winning designer was selected a year ago, yet no contract has been signed or sent to commissioners for approval \u2014 what the board calls a year of apparent inaction.The board points to the Underline, a longer and more complex project approved around the same time and expected to finish this year, as proof Miami-Dade can deliver when projects are properly managed.Former South Miami mayor Julio Robaina told the Herald, \u201cIt\u2019s not brain surgery\u201d \u2014 a line the board uses to argue the county has the money and a proven model but lacks accountability and urgency.<\/p>\n

The summary was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drone view looking north shows a section of the disused railway that will be converted into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-342877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}