Miami Mover Monorail

FBT provided the structural design services for the contractor during the construction of the MIA Mover monorail connecting the main terminal at Miami International Airport with the Rental Car Center.  The MIA Mover is an automated people mover (APM) system consisting of a 1.25-mile-long elevated people mover which eliminated the need for shuttle buses to connect the terminal with the rental car center (which reduced emissions at the airport by about 30%).

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The concrete guideways are generally elevated an average of 40 feet above grade and are supported by concrete piers every 120 feet. The Guideway Equipment controls for the people mover system required a significant amount of roof-top-mounted components (see the first picture below), all of which required structural wind designs for anchoring and to ensure the system will remain functional after a hurricane.  The structures were designed for 150 MPH wind per the Florida Building Code (2007 edition) and ASCE-7 (2005) which were the current codes at the time.  

 

Special design considerations accounted for the elevated nature and the roof-top effects for the main wind-resisting system and the components and cladding elements.  The design work included a total of about 30 specific tasks, ranging from exposed cable trays and conduits to large equipment cabinets.  Of particular note was a large junction box that hung from the bottom of the concrete main supporting beams near a pier (see the second picture below). 

 

The junction box was 7.5 feet wide by 9 feet long by 1.5 feet high and weighed over 3,000 pounds including the weight of the 18 large-diameter conductors inside the box. The box was designed to hang from the webs of the main beams rather than the bottom flange to avoid damage to the prestressing and post-tensioning.