Critics doubt a tunnel for commuter rail will ever get built in Fort Lauderdale’s downtown.
Fort Lauderdale Vice Mayor John Herbst is one of them — and he thinks it’s high time for Fort Lauderdale to finally give up its fight to get a tunnel built at the New River.
“This is a zombie project,” Herbst said during a recent commission discussion. “I don’t understand the purpose of continuing to drag this thing along. Put a stake in it, call it dead and be done with it. I think commuter rail for the foreseeable future in South Florida is just not going to happen.”
For years, Fort Lauderdale has locked horns with Broward County over whether to build a tunnel or bridge.
According to a consultant hired by Fort Lauderdale, a 1.1-mile twin-bore train tunnel would cost around $888 million. A bridge, according to the county, would cost $500 million.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis has argued a bridge would destroy downtown. But county officials have said all along they prefer a less expensive bridge.
Currently, freight trains and Brightline passenger trains rely on a single-leaf bascule drawbridge to cross the New River. Built in 1978, the bridge frequently remains in the open position for marine traffic, closing only for freight and Brightline trains.
Fort Lauderdale was given a Feb. 13 deadline by the county to complete a feasibility and cost study for a tunnel.
During a recent City Hall meeting, commissioners were told by staff that tunnel builders cannot give a true estimate of cost without using tunnel boring machines to conduct a costly geotechnical survey, also known as a subsurface investigation.
So far no company has come forward with an unsolicited proposal to do that work.
And none will, Herbst told the commission.
Herbst argued that tunnel industry experts know the project is going nowhere because there’s no money for it.
“We’re not going to fund it,” Herbst said. “The county is not going to fund it. The state is not going to fund it. And the feds are not going to fund it.”
Herbst summed up the reasons for his skepticism, saying that Brightline is in financial trouble, the state is defunding Tri-Rail and the Trump administration would rather spend money on highways than trains.
Herbst pointed to yet another roadblock: Florida East Coast Railway, the company that owns the tracks, filed a lawsuit against Brightline in July alleging breach of contract. The lawsuit is currently on a temporary hold as the two parties recently entered into arbitration.
A fiscal conservative, Herbst said he doubts a bridge will get built either.
“I don’t think we’re getting a bridge, I don’t think we’re getting a tunnel, I don’t think we’re getting a train,” he said. “I think we missed our window of opportunity during the Biden administration. We missed that window. And I don’t know that it’s going to come back any time soon.”
On Friday, Broward Commissioner Steve Geller said he’s not at all surprised that Fort Lauderdale has not been able to come up with an accurate price for the train tunnel.
“We’ve been saying all along that they couldn’t give us an accurate cost,” Geller said. “It’s clear now we don’t have an accurate number and we’re not going to get one.”
Unlike Herbst, Geller hesitated to say expanded commuter rail in South Florida is dead.
“Is it dead? Not yet,” Geller said. “Is it on life support? Yes.”
Broward Mayor Mark Bogen was a bit more optimistic.
Bogen thinks a bridge will eventually get built to accommodate passenger trains.
“It has to be built if we are ever going to have the type of transportation system this community wants,” Bogen said. “Time might require us to wait until we have a different administration. I think it’s needed. We need to build up other modes of transportation to allow people to travel by train. I believe it will happen. When, I don’t know.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on @Susannah_Bryan