In 2004, a Downtown transit and pedestrian mobility study was completed through partnerships with the Downtown Development Authority of Fort Lauderdale (DDA), the City of Fort Lauderdale, the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), FDOT, Broward County, the Broward MPO, the Clean Air Cooperative, the Downtown Fort Lauderdale Transportation Management Association (TMA) and Tri-Rail that resulted in the need to invest in transit and pedestrian improvements in downtown.

Along with many steps taken to improve connectivity and the pedestrian realm, the DDA, in partnership with Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the Broward MPO, hired Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) in 2005 to complete an Alternative Analysis (AA) and Environmental Assessment (EA). In simple terms, these are studies done to identify a potential route and technology and to determine the potential environmental impacts associated with completing a transit improvement.

During the AA process, there was a large outcry from the community to extend the project boundaries down to the hospital on 17th Street to link up to the local hospital district. So in 2006, the study area was extended to down to the Hospital.

In 2008, a locally preferred alternative (LPA) was endorsed by Broward County, the City of Fort Lauderdale, and the DDA. The route extends from Sistrunk/6th St on the North to SE 17th St on the South. The route map can be found on the Project Details page.

In addition, Broward County committed to be the owner and operator of the system and the City of Fort Lauderdale pledged a capital contribution of $10.5 million and agreed to go through a special assessment process to raise the remaining local share, all very significant steps to making the project a reality!

Most of 2010 and 2011 have been aimed at building the project partnership, which now includes the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) as the FTA project sponsor and the manager of design and construction. In addition, the project team has been hard at work finalizing the necessary federal submittals and meeting with property owners about the proposed local assessment.

Stay tuned for more! Alot is expected to happen through the end of 2011!