MIAMI – Costly repair work continues at Miami International Airport, including on one big frustration for travelers: the out-of-service Skytrain.
It’s been down nearly five months, but this week, an estimated $4.2 million worth of work will commence.
Local 10 News’ Janine Stanwood received exclusive access onto the tarmac as work begins to re-open the Skytrain.
“Today we are going to start the test runs of our crane for the repairs of our Skytrain,” said Miami International Airport Director Ralph Cutié.
It was mid-September when inspectors found worsening cracks on five pier caps, the tops of concrete columns that were poured in 1999 to support the train.
Cutié said he felt he had no choice but to shut down the operation.
“In an over-abundance of caution and for the safety of our passengers and employees, the Skytrain was taken out of service for repairs to avoid a potential catastrophe such as a Surfside condominium or FIU bridge collapse,” he said.
The first step in the process to repair the pier caps includes chipping away old concrete.
“Replacing the concrete, and then wrapping the actual pier cap with some waterproof membrane,” said Cutié.
Crews were seen Monday setting up fencing around the crane. They’ve been doing tests on it and the work is expected to begin later this week.
In the meantime, travelers have expressed frustration, saying the closure is unacceptable and that the golf cart-type trollies deployed in the meantime are hard to find.
“We’re trying to increase the frequency of the trollies,” said Cutié. “We have about 10 in the terminal that are operating.”
He was asked by Stanwood if there is additional maintenance that needs to happen so that this doesn’t happen to other pier caps.
“Actually, yes,” he said. “One of the things we’re doing is, once we finish these major repairs, we’re going to continue to do some work. Some additional maintenance repairs to less severe cracks throughout the system.”
Cutié said the busiest area where the train runs, about 75 percent of the system, should be back in service by the end of March.