An ongoing construction project digs deep into the surface streets of Miami Lakes – part of the purpose is so that Miami Lakes doesn’t turn into a lake when it rains. NBC6’s Roxanne Vargas reports
Streets and sidewalks have been torn up in several quiet Miami Lakes neighborhoods, and detours just to get home! Why?
This is an ongoing project in Miami Lakes with a goal to improve drainage and infrastructure in the Town. It's one of many construction projects featured in NBC6's What's Being Built Here series.
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WATCH HERE“I think it's important. Important, because a lot of our neighbors have complained about the flooding,” says Miami lakes resident David Ackerman while on a walk with his dog as excavators tear up the sidewalk.
The bulk of the work began in 2021 when the Town council approved a $13 million dollar Stormwater Utility bond.
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“In the past six years, we've completed about 15 drainage projects throughout the town,” says Omar Santos, Director of Public Words for the Town of Miami lakes. He says 9 improvement projects are currently in the planning and design stage.
We visited some of the neighborhoods where the construction is happening to see what the residents are saying, like Mr. Waseskuk who was on his morning walk when we met.
“I just cross streets back and forth to try and avoid not being inconvenience to them…I noticed last year with the big rains, there's definitely an improvement, depending on how bad the rain is, of course” he tells me. Long term improvements, but inconvenient in the moment. “Well, we've had a couple of power outages,
and the trash removal has been a problem. But I think everybody's persevering, because basically they want the improvement,” says Mr. Ackerman.
What's Being Built Here
We asked Mr. Santos with the Town, about the mess that Miami lakes residents must maneuver around in their neighborhoods, and he told me, “We work with our contractors to collect keep the site as clean as possible and keep the mess to the immediate area where they're working and restore as soon as we can.”
Something that residents don’t see, is how the new infrastructure filters out pollutants from ending up in canals and in the groundwater. The $33 million dollars project is being funded by the Town Stormwater Utility Bond and the American Rescue Plan Act. The current phase of this program should be complete by December 2026.
