In Key Largo Neighborhood, The Tide Came In & Stayed For A Month; Now They're Raising The Roads
In a small Key Largo neighborhoods, the tide came in - and didn't go out for almost a month. Residents sloshed through more than a foot of saltwater that lapped at their front yards, knocked over their trash cans, created a mosquito breeding ground and made their roads nearly impassable. Some residents rented SUVs to protect their own cars. Others were homebound. One started a Facebook page to document the flooding: Key Largo Community Swamp.
That was the fall of 2015, courtesy of freak weather and high tides. Neighbors have clamored for solutions since, and Monroe County has finally pitched a potential fix. Officials want to elevate the lowest, most flood-prone road in the Twin Lakes Community of Key Largo and in the low-lying Sands neighborhood of Big Pine Key, 70 miles south — and 2018 might be the year it happens. The county will start accepting design proposals in the coming weeks, and money for construction could be available in October.
It’s a small but significant project — it will be the first road project in the Keys specifically designed for adaptation to future sea level rise, a clear and present problem for the famous chain of islands. The county has already spent $10 million on road projects that include elevation, and plans to spend at least $7 million more in the near future. But these are the first to include collecting, pumping and treating the stormwater that runs off the newly raised road.
These small stretches of road are test cases for the county. Monroe hopes to use lessons learned here on the rest of the roads that climate change will swamp in the years to come. Out of 300 total miles of county roads, half are susceptible to sea level rise in the next 20 years, said Rhonda Haag, the county’s sustainability program manager.
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http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/Florida-Keys-to-raise-roads-before-climate-change-puts-them-underwater-It-won-t-be-cheap_165166610
