GOVERNMENT
the city prevailing in a separate but related administrative
challenge,” Mayor Greg Oravec says. “Thus, all legal challenges
to date have been rebuffed, and we are on the verge of
making a longstanding community dream come true.”
“In a special election nearly 12 years ago, 89 percent of
the voters approved an increase in our taxes to pay for it,”
Mayor Oravec adds. “The bridge is critically needed for
transportation, economic development, emergency response
and evacuation.”
As of January, the Crosstown Parkway Extension Project
was in full swing with completion of several mitigation projects
to improve water quality, restore wildlife wetlands and
provide for enhancing future ecotourism in the city’s eastern
sector. The importance of getting the bridge built and protecting
CROSSTOWN PARKWAY EXTENSION PROJECT
2003 - Design and construction of the first 6 miles of the
Crosstown Parkway begins
2005 - Voters approve a citywide bond referendum to fund
the project
2009 - Crosstown Parkway completed to Manth Lane
2015 - City Council awards the design/build contract to
the Archer Western and RS&H Team
2016 - Public open house held at Community Center;
environmental mitigation completed
For more information: The public is invited to a
construction open house scheduled from
5:30 to 7:30 p.m., March 6, at the community center,
2195 SE Airoso Blvd. A presentation will begin at 6.
Port St. Lucie Magazine 43
the river has been a major balancing act.
“With any bridge project of this scope, there will be impacts
to the natural environment,” City Manger Russ Blackburn
says. “It is imperative to balance the needs of our city of
almost 180,000 residents and our obligation to protect natural
resources.”
MITIGATIONS MONITORED
Regulatory mitigation – offsetting the environmental impacts
of constructing the bridge – as well as proprietary mitigations
of water quality improvements and enhancements
to state park lands were monitored at three sites by the city’s
engineering and public works departments: Savannas Education
Center, Evans Creek and Platt’s Creek in White City. One
hundred ten acres of city-owned land in the St. Lucie Basin
were donated to the state park system to offset 10 acres that
will be impacted by the bridge.
“The city invested … more mitigation projects than
required by the permits … (and) completed these projects
as a good faith effort well in advance of the permitting and
building of the actual bridge, all within our St. Lucie Basin,”
Blackburn says. “Our investment and concern for the environment
does not stop now that construction starts.”
The mitigation was threefold: proprietary water quality
improvements completed at four sites, recreational opportunities
at the Savannas Recreation Area Trail and Savannas
Preserve State Park and a regulatory package that was a joint
mitigation as a city/county collaboration known as the Platt’s
Creek Restoration Project. >>
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