Miami-Dade Weighs $2.4M Fire-Pump Fix for Transitway Garage

Miami-Dade County is being asked to approve a $2,448,325 increase to OHLA USA’s design-build contract for the South Dade Transitway, a fix triggered after county permit reviewers found the fire pump system serving the SW 168 Street Station park-and-ride garage’s electric vehicle charging areas lacked the capacity to meet updated Fire Department standards.

Why it matters

The SW 168 Street garage, more than 640 spaces, opened to the public in April 2026 and has been operating since, but the fire-suppression shortfall surfaced during permit review and coordination with the Fire Department rather than before the facility finished construction. For contractors and developers tracking how South Florida agencies manage change orders on major transit builds, that sequence, a safety-capacity gap caught after a public facility is already in service, is the pattern worth watching.

The item is still pending. County staff are recommending that the Board of County Commissioners approve Supplemental Agreement No. 1; it has not yet been voted on. Under County Code Section 29-124(f), the Board can only take up the item once the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust forwards its own recommendation, or after 45 days pass without one, and staff note the item would be withdrawn if that window lapses first.

The numbers

The proposed increase is $2.4M, funded from the project’s existing contingency, covering the fire pump redesign plus related work from revised parking stall widths and egress separation requirements. It would also extend the contract term by 507 calendar days and add 51 days to the contingency period. The original 2020 design-build contract, approved under Resolution No. R-890-20, was valued at $368,233,493.42. Two prior change orders, in 2022 and 2024, already added a combined 577 days to the schedule and contingency. The current contract stands at $385,233,493.42; if this supplemental agreement is approved, the maximum contract amount would rise to $387,681,818.42, with a revised duration of 1,884 calendar days.

What’s next

No Board hearing date has been scheduled yet for this item. It remains contingent on the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust referral or the 45-day lapse provision before it can reach a commission vote. OHLA USA remains the design-build contractor of record on the South Dade Transitway corridor, which the county’s own figures show carried about 1.8 million rider trips between November 2025 and May 2026.