Port of Miami tunnel to nowhere opened today

Miami-Dade County electeds, the governor and several business and civic leaders are right now celebrating the opening today of the $1 billion Port of Miami tunnel that took 30 years to build and that most of us will never actually use.

Built for the cargo and cruise industry that drive one of the county’s biggest economic engines, with $27 billion generated annually, the port tunnel will reportedly take tons of trucks off the street, Biscayne Boulevard, principally, alleviating downtown traffic, which has become so bad that rush hour is from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. or so.

The politicos are convincing in their arguments about the benefits of this necessary evil outweighing the risks. But how many taxpayers will actually get to drive it? How many times have you been to the port? We know that there are at least 200,000 people who work there, according to the materials produced by those who oppose a Major League Soccer stadium on a port parcel.

And the place is likely swarming today. Already Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz — left with Commissioners Sally Heyman and Audrey Edmonson — was one of the first politicos to post a photo to his Facebook page.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez was quick to post his own photo on twitter with Gov. Rick Scott, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, Commission Chair Rebeca Sosa and others. “@PortMiami opening #celebration @FLGovScott @RebecaSosaMiami & other officials. @PortMiami is vital to our economy,” Gimenez, or one of his lackeys, posted.

Even U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was here and said a few words.

But where is former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, who many say is the brain daddy of the tunnel? I hope he’s there.

Ladra has been to the port all of maybe once in her entire life. And that was because she was the late night general assignment reporter and there was a fire somewhere.

Doubt I would go again. Generally, this dog don’t like tunnels. They scared me when I had to drive through mountains in Europe.

But I gotta admit, this perfect cover picture of Aventura Commissioner Luz Weinberg, who is also the communications director for the construction company that led the project, and whose regular video and photo updates are really good, is kinda cool.

Of course, we’ll never see the tunnel so pretty and shiny (read: clean and empty) again.