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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