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                                       Mayor’s Message continued





              At the beginning of this year, we broke ground on the largest  Five other neighborhoods will receive drainage and stormwater
              stormwater projects in city history: simultaneous drainage  improvements in the coming years: Victoria Park, Durrs, Dorsey
              initiatives in two of the most flood-prone areas – the  Riverbend, Southeast Isles, and Progresso Village.
              Edgewood and River Oaks neighborhoods. Today in River  After the record-breaking rainfall that we experienced in
              Oaks, city contractors have cleaned and inspected more   2020, Fort Lauderdale has also been acting quickly to
              than 3,000 linear feet of existing drainage pipes. And, they  improve drainage in the heavily impacted Melrose Park
              have removed and replaced over 450 linear feet of old   neighborhood. A design for a new stormwater management
              water mains. This $26 million investment is running on  system is now underway to add an estimated $30 million into
              schedule and on budget, with a completion date scheduled  the infrastructure of the Melrose area.
              for January 2025.
                                                                    But that’s not all. Our six miles of coastline is more than just an
              In Edgewood, stormwater upgrades have also been       economic engine for the city, it’s also a critical natural
              progressing quickly. To date, 20 structures and more than  protective barrier against storm surge. The Army Corps of
              2,000 feet of reinforced concrete piping have been installed.  Engineers is currently renourishing parts of our beach in
              An additional four construction phases will progress east  response to the erosion caused by Hurricane Irma. You may
              through the neighborhood and are scheduled to be complete  have already noticed the crews and construction cranes on the
              by fall 2024.
                                                                    shore adding sand. This work will be complete next month.
                                                                                    Public Works crews also have installed
                                                                                    more than 185 tidal valves to reduce tidal
                                                                                    flooding on roadways with direct outfalls
                                                                                    to the city's 165 miles of waterways.
                                                                                    Another effort is improving the city
                                                                                    seawalls. At the start of this year, we
                                                                                    marked the completion of the Cordova
                                                                                    Road seawall project. This two-year
                                                                                    investment involved rebuilding a half-mile
                                                                                    section of seawall and increasing its
                                                                                    height to reduce flooding and protect
                                                                                    property and infrastructure from storm
                                                                                    surges during hurricanes. The project also
                                                                                    included upgrading the seawall's
                                                                                    drainage systems, creating larger swales
                                                                                    and improving the water connections
                                                                                    along the wall for private boat docks.

                                                                                    As part of the seawall replacement
                                                                                    program, the city is planning to replace
                                                                                    four Las Olas seawalls, two seawalls on
                                                                                    Hendricks Isle and the Southeast 10th
                                                                                    Street seawall. HB
                                                                                    Yours,

                                                                                    Dean Trantalis
                                                                                    Mayor, City of Fort Lauderdale











          16                            HARBOR BEACH Magazine  | www.harborbeach.org
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