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The historic Tampa neighborhood of Palmetto Beach sits just above sea level and faced flooding during Hurricane Helene.
Now, a 25-million-dollar plan announced last year is facing new tweaks to get the neighborhood, located south of Ybor City, storm-ready.
The Pathways to Palmetto project was originally announced last summer.
It focuses on narrowing Bermuda Boulevard along McKay Bay, as well as adding sidewalks.
Crews would also reconstruct the seawall on McKay Bay.
Brandon Campbell is the Director of Transportation Services in Tampa.
The neighborhood, which a City of Tampa press release describes as underinvested, saw a storm surge of 7 and a half feet during hurricane Helene, and Campbell says the current seawall in the area is only around 5 feet.
“Even with a new seawall, if we built it exactly back as it is, we would have seen the water from Helene overtopping that,” Campbell told WMNF.
“That is causing us to reimagine the scope of the project and to see if there are possibilities for us to even increase the height of the existing seawall and what impacts that might have on the existing infrastructure and street network,”
Due to environmental review and design, Campbell says they’re still about three years from construction. He also says federal government reviews on construction funding have affected the project’s timeline “to an extent.”
A 2024 press release says projects of this scale can take up to five years to complete.
One Response to “Tampa reworks $25M improvement project for Palmetto Beach after Hurricane Helene flooding”
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“The neighborhood, which a City of Tampa press release describes as underinvested, saw a storm surge of 7 and a half feet during hurricane Helene, and Campbell says the current seawall in the area is only around 5 feet. ” so the infrastructure if you built the wall up above the actual grade of the land behind it would it not just trap the water? how high would a new wall be built in comparison to the current seawall and what about what’s behind that seawall? is the land built up behind the seawall to match the grade of the seawall ? how would you do that? what about houses on stilts that put them above the surge danger zone, why would this be important? for prevention of time energy and focus. how much money would it save in the future? how much time? how many resources? just in a little small area like this? speaking of small area what about the space it would open up underneath houses? potential maximizing the potential of space? how much would one sq foot of land be considered in value? also what volume of room can be considered a usable space? also just to get the ball rolling in that progression, consider this all the time energy and resources spent on the aftermath of the surge, what if that could have been spent in more prevention, so who can afford to put their house on stilts ?Stilt houses (also called pile dwellings or lake dwellings) are houses raised on stilts (or piles) over the surface of the soil or a body of water. Stilt houses are built primarily as a protection against flooding; they also keep out vermin. The shady space under the house can be used for work or storage.