County Wanted to Drill for Oil in Everglades to Pay for New Terminals
Up next for the bloated airport project? Paying for it. This'll be fun.
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MIAMI - MAY 22: American Airlines planes sit parked at their gates as another plane approaches at Miami International Airport May 22, 2008 in Miami, Florida. American Airlines parent AMR announced May 21, 2008 that in response to surging fuel costs, the carrier was cutting 7% of its workforce, 11-12% of its domestic flights, and retire 75 aircraft. In addition, American announced that it would begin charging a most passengers a $15 fee their first checked bag. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)
The new terminals at Miami International Airport are shiny, modern, amenified, and "oozing tropical chic," but the most Miami thing about them is how delayed, mired in political corruption, and mismanaged the project had become by the time they were completed.
The $3.9-billion project now bears a price tag of $6.9 billion, according to the Miami Herald, along with an out-of-warranty skytrain that doesn't connect to the other two terminals, an aged and ragged central core, a baggage handling system still unready, and 21 million fewer travelers than envisioned when the whole project began in the mid-1990s.
Just about the only thing that could top the mess is if county commissioners wanted to drill for oil in the Everglades to pay for it all.
Oh, wait. They did:
To dig out from its construction tab, which won't be paid off until 2041, county officials are devising schemes to gin up new sources of cash.One idea raised -- but ultimately shelved -- last year: oil drilling in the Everglades.
Another: installing slot machines in terminals.
Still alive are plans to rock mine on county-owned land in the northwestern fringes of Miami-Dade.
Yeesh. If you thought the Gulf spill looked bad, imagine what we might have seen with Miami-Dade County in charge of drilling oil in one of our most precious, delicate, and dying wetlands.
Fortunately, reason won. But It does appears the county will have to do something to pay for the bloated project, which will double operations and debt costs for the airport to $1 billion annually and threatens to price low-cost airlines out of the area.
Along with the rock mine, officials are exploring the possibility of a public-private partnership to turn the former Pan Am land at the airport into a complex featuring hotels and shops.
One would think the airport would need those missing additional 21 million travelers to be successful with such a venture, which probably means they'll get started on it soon and start the cycle all over again.
