Costs of Resiliency Begin to Come Into Focus in Florida
For Monroe County, Florida, home of Key Largo, resiliency is a more pressing concern than it has ever been. Like many other places in the Keys, Monroe is coming to terms with change in climate and sea levels, and the impact of recent storms. While national policymakers debate the climate issue and the need – or lack thereof – for action, Monroe County residents have seen enough evidence to move them to support governmental action.
The county’s plans to address resiliency concerns currently focuses on road projects, and it’s clear why: half of the Monroe’s 300 total miles of county roads have been assessed by the county to be susceptible to sea level rise in the next 20 years. 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. One such plan is 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.
In Big Pine, the road is going up a foot. In Key Largo, it’s being raised six inches. Those elevations are just an inch above what researchers say is necessary for both roads to be above sea level for the next 25 years. But it is a start and will provide useful experience and help to refine cost estimates for wider-scale flood mitigation.
Posted 02/16/2018 by Joseph Krist
Neighborly Insights