Two Key Largo neighborhoods prone to flooding during king tide season could receive some state funding through a new program.
According to county officials, the Department of Environmental protection recently announced that more than $5 million in flood mitigation projects in the Upper Keys were included in the state’s Flooding and Sea Level Rise and Resilience Plan. State legislators are set to convene for a 60-day session on Jan. 11, and among the items they’ll consider are projects in the plan.
Projects hone in two neighborhoods that have long dealt with road flooding in Twins Lakes and Stillwright Point communities. Projects will look to raise road elevation and provide stormwater management.
Monroe County submitted six applications. The smaller project applications may be included in a second round of federal funding later.
The Twin Lakes Subdivision Flood Mitigation Project is fully designed and shovel ready. The total project cost for construction is $7.8 million. A request is in for $3.9 million to share costs 50-50.
A Stillwright Point Flood Mitigation Project is currently in the design and engineering phase. Costs for design, engineering and permitting is $2.37 million. A request to the state is seeking $1.1 million.
“We are appreciative that the two highest priority projects are listed on the state’s plan for the full amount that the county requested,” said Monroe County Legislative Director Lisa Tennyson. “This plan shows the state is taking sea-level rise and resiliency very seriously.”
Twin Lakes is a part of the demonstration project which has been underway for the past five years, and Stillwright Point is a project that was developed under the county’s road elevation study, spearheaded by Chief Resilience Officer Rhonda Haag and Director of Roads and Bridges Judy Clarke.
Stillwright Point residents saw water return to their roads this past fall, but not to the level they witnessed the previous two years. In 2019, residents saw saltwater inundating streets for more than 90 days — the result of a king tide. Residents didn’t see dry roads until late November that year, when water was more than a foot deep, causing hardship for residents in the community. Flooding in Stillwright Point in 2020 lasted a little over 70 days, and it prompted the county to try out 24-inch-high flood barriers to mitigate rising water levels.
Flooding in Key Largo’s Twin Lakes dates back many years. Between 2015 and early 2016, Twin Lakes residents dealt with more than a month of sustained and continuous saltwater flooding. That led the board of county commissioners to make Twin Lakes a pilot project to study, design and implement a solution to address flooding issues.
Commissioners in January 2017 received an engineer’s report and recommendations on a design. It included elevation of roads within Twin Lakes to about 5 inches of elevation to extend the life of the road to 2040. Roads identified included Shaw Drive, Crane Street and Adams Drive.
