The Southwest Florida Management District’s Governing Board agreed to increase funding for a cooperative funding project with the city of Belleair Beach to reduce flooding and improve water quality.
The project’s budget has been increased from $100,000 to $192,000 because the bids the city received for the project exceeded the available funding. The cost will be divided equally between Belleair Beach and the District’s Pinellas Anclote River Basin Board with the Basin Board contributing up to $96,000.
The project will upgrade the city’s stormwater management system near 12th Street. The roadways and stormwater infrastructure in the area were built before current water quality programs so the area experiences heavy sediment and pollution loading from Gulf Boulevard. The sediment-laden runoff flows directly into an outfall pipe and into Clearwater Harbor. Infrastructure improvements include adding inlets and storm piping, a Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS) unit, which will treat stormwater runoff, and the associated roadway reconstruction.
The city is responsible for all phases of the project, design, permitting and construction, as well as hiring consultants and contractors. City workers will also conduct the routine maintenance on the CDS unit, such as cleaning out the sediment removed from the stormwater runoff.
The project’s completion date was also extended by a year. The new completion date is December 2007.