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After Sandy, Crews Wrap Up Work On Fort Lauderdale's Stretch Of A1A

C. DiMattei

The folks who live along a small stretch of Fort Lauderdale Beach just north of Sunrise Boulevard know the drill.

Actually, they spent the first part of 2013 hearing little else.

Nearly every day since early January, work crews have been out between Northeast 14th Court and Northeast 18th Street  installing a new sea wall.  The first phase involved a huge rig drilling 40 feet down to make way for 500 pieces of sheet metal pilings.

Last November, a combination of seasonal high tides and storm surge from Hurricane Sandy caused a section of A1A to crumble.  In a flash, palm trees toppled, concrete barriers sank and even the parking meters were uprooted.  The churning waves also dug their claws into a huge chunk of beach sand.

Fifty-two year old Mark Reed takes his daily walk along that stretch of A1A.  He says it looks a great deal better now than it did five months ago.

“Actually it was pretty horrific, says Reed. "This entire street was flooded.  It was quite a mess.”

The $8.3 million road repair project has been paid for mostly with state gas-tax revenues.  Broward County put up the $860,000 worth of sand to replenish the ravaged beach.

But the emergency repairs are only a temporary fix.  The city of Fort Lauderdale is teaming up with state transportation officials to find a long-term solution.

That phase of the project is expected to begin late next year.

Christine DiMattei is WLRN's Morning Edition anchor and also reports on Arts & Culture.
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