Miami Intermodal Center

Metro Rail & Bus Canopy at the Miami Intermodal Center (MIC)

The Miami Intermodal Center is a multi-transit hub serving the Miami Dade International Airport. The transportation project features Zahner manufactured and installed structural forms (ZEPPS) made in aluminum, glass, and stainless steel. 

Designed by architects Perez & Perez, the construction team brought Zahner into the project to engineer, fabricate, and install the transit station’s exterior canopy.  Zahner worked under Odebrecht of Brazil to produce this extensive project, completed in July 2012.  The scope for Zahner includes the metal and glass for the metro rail canopy as well as the adjacent bus canopy. 

The most visible aspect of the project is the unique curving train canopy whose window slits glazed-in throughout the whole. The multi-million dollar contract required much of the Zahner fabrication facility for nearly a full year of manufacturing the hundreds of massive ZEPPS assemblies for nearly a year.

Zahner used ZEPPS to manufacture prefabricated assemblies which were shipped to Miami. ZEPPS, is a Zahner building system for manufacturing unique forms. The prefab technology streamlines and maximizes efficiency for the construction of any unique design. It also provides flexibility and can be used to manufacture parts with all of the electrical, insulation, water-proofing, and fenestrations contained. 

The Main Canopy is composed of 156 ZEPPS assemblies. Each of these parts were preassembled in the Zahner shop. The semi-typical assemblies measure over forty feet long. The total length of the building is just under five-hundred feet in length.

The ZEPPS assemblies were tested and re-tested in a wind-tunnel at 150PSF to withstand 250MPH winds, or nearly twice that of a category five hurricane. The Miami Intermodal Center is situated just a mile from the airport, which is less than ten miles from the Atlantic ocean, so the potential for a hurricane is real possibility. After the panels were tested, each of the subsequent panels produced were designed and built using these specifications.

Each assembly provides a substrate for the stainless steel skins which provide the final cladding. These are finished with Angel Hair diffuse surfacing, which creates a gentle glow on the metal surface of these canopies.