Key Biscayne Feasibility Study, FL

1. DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this study is to address protection of critical infrastructure, reduction of structural damages, and evacuation route protection along the Miami-Dade County’s Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) Program’s Key Biscayne Segment in response to the risks and effects of coastal storms and associated impacts such as sea level rise, storm surge, and extreme wind and tidal effects. The Village of Key Biscayne, Florida is a densely populated barrier island (approximately 1.4 square miles with approximately 13,000 people (Census 2020)) located just east of Miami, south of Miami Beach, with a western shoreline on Biscayne Bay (back bay) and an eastern shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean. With an average elevation of 3.4 feet, the primary issues the study will address are storm damages primarily due to coastal flooding from the oceanside and back bay areas because of hurricanes and storms, which includes storm surges, tides, and waves combined with the effects of the sea level rise, storm damages due to erosion and wave attacks along the ocean shoreline, and compounding flooding contributions from rainfall and stormwater movement.  

2. FUNDING

3. SPONSOR

Miami-Dade County
Department of Regulatory and Economic Resources (RER)
Division of Environmental Resources Management, Water Management;
701 Northwest 1st Court, 5th Floor 
Miami, Florida 33136

4. STATUS

The Key Biscayne Segment was initially proposed to be included in the Miami-Dade County’s Coastal Storm Risk Management Program’s Main Segment’s feasibility study; however, after reviewing the Key Biscayne Segment’s exception request package, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decided that the segment should be studied under a separate new start feasibility study. The project’s study authority is contained in Statute 69-132, Chapter 140, Public Law 84-71, adopted on June 15, 1955.  Initial appropriations ($500,000) were included in the FY23 Work Plan, and additional appropriations ($600,000 and $500,000) were included in the FY24 and FY25 President’s Budgets, respectively. The study’s Feasibility Cost Share Agreement was executed on November 1, 2023, and the Alternatives Milestone Meeting was held on February 27, 2024. An initial Vertical Team Alignment Memo (VTAM) was prepared in May 2024 that detailed a $7.7M study to be completed in approximately 5 years; however, the Corps is preparing an updated VTAM to complete the study for $6.1M in under 5 years.