Miami-Dade cities awarded $33 million in hurricane grants to fund seawalls, upgrade pipes
Three Miami-Dade cities will receive $33.4 million in state grants to build new seawalls, improve sewer and water systems and prevent flooding.
The new funding is part of a nearly $150 million statewide grant disbursal announced Friday by Gov. Ron DeSantis “to develop large-scale infrastructure projects to make communities more resilient to future disasters.”
North Miami Beach received about $17.7 million, which the city will use to strengthen its water transmission and distribution system, improving water quality and fire-flow capacity while making the system more reliable. Funding will also go toward system-wide enhancements to the city’s sewer collection system to protect surrounding water ways and public health.
The city of Miami, which received about $14.7 million, will spend about $13.5 million renovating existing sea walls, building new sections and making other “coastal resiliency improvements,” the announcement said. About $1.2 million will go toward a roadway project that will install, among other features, a drainage system, an exfiltration trench and swales to the section of Northwest 17th Street between Northwest 27th and 32nd avenues.
Doral, the only other Miami-Dade city mentioned in the announcement, was awarded a $1 million grant to reduce flooding by installing a drainage outfall to discharge water into the canal on Northwest 58th Street.
Other South Florida municipalities that were awarded state grants include: West Palm Beach ($16.7 million), Fort Lauderdale ($10.5 million), Key West ($9.4 million) and Lauderhill ($3.1 million). Broward’s county government also received $6.2 million.
The money was drawn from a pool of federal Community Development Block Grant funds allocated to the state by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development following a series of hurricanes that hit Florida in 2016 and 2017, and led to presidential disaster declarations.
Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity, which is disbursing the grants, said it will allocate a total of $475 million over three rounds of funding.
The governor’s office said money will only go to municipalities designated by federal or state authorities as having been “most impacted and distressed” by Hurricanes Hermine, Matthew and Irma in 2016 and 2017. All of South Florida — from Palm Beach to Monroe counties — has received federal designation, according to a graphic released by the governor’s office Friday.
“My administration remains committed to providing the resources necessary for Florida communities to build back stronger and be more resilient to future storms,” DeSantis said in a statement. “This transformational mitigation funding will go a long way in helping Florida’s communities invest in their futures through critical infrastructure improvements.”
This story was originally published April 16, 2021 at 3:49 PM.
.JPG)