MIAMI – A new double-track elevated metro line that for the first time links the Miami International Airport with downtown will become an “architectural icon” for the city, the president of the U.S. unit of Spanish infrastructure group OHL told Efe.

Completing a project of the complexity of the Metrorail’s new Orange Line on time “makes us very proud” and is an achievement not only for OHL but “the entire Spanish construction sector,” Bravar said.

OHL needed to overcome logistical and technical difficulties to complete this project, which created more than 550 direct jobs and 5,750 indirect jobs.

The route had to pass over an industrial zone, as well as span a portion of the Miami River, a highway that leads to the airport and the tracks of a commuter rail line.

There were a range of “special logistical challenges that we resolved using precast segmental structures that minimized the impact (of the guideway) on highway and train traffic during construction,” Bravar said.

The successful result of a project begun in 2009 is a “reward for many years of work well done. We take it as a gift for our first 100 years of activity, which we recently completed,” Bravar said.

Authorities estimate that some 9,000 passengers a day will use the Metrorail – which opened in 1984 – to travel quickly and safely between the airport and downtown.

“The project provides a fast and efficient connection for millions of residents, visitors and employees who travel to and from the airport every year,” Miami-Dade Transit Director Ysela Llort told Efe. EFE