Posts by V3ctraDigit@l5

CAPE CORAL NEW WEIR 29 TO HELP ALLEVIATE IRRIGATION RESTRICTIONS

The City of Cape Coral actively manages one of the largest surface water management systems in Southwest Florida, composed of many miles of fresh and saltwater canals, interconnecting culverts, irrigation withdrawal facilities, and 30 major water control structures. Like other areas in Southwest Florida, the City of Cape Coral has an overabundance of freshwater in the rainy season and a lack of water in the dry season, often leading to severe irrigation restrictions mandated by lowered water levels in the freshwater canals and groundwater. A key recommendation in the City’s stormwater master planning was to install a new weir at the existing, uncontrolled outfall to Yellow Fever Creek from Midsummer Canal. It was proposed that the new weir would raise the control elevation and reduce freshwater outflows during the dry season, preserving a precious resource.Johnson Engineering completed the design, specifications, and permitting through SFWMD and USACE for a new primary outfall structure, Weir 29. The project is currently nearing the end of construction. Performed entirely in-house, the design included a fixed-crest concrete weir with two slide gates with motorized actuation, remote monitoring, and remote operation. The Supervisor Control and Automatic Data Acquisition (SCADA) system was designed to be compatible with the existing remote monitoring and operating system currently used by the City of Cape Coral.At the beginning of the detailed design phase of this project we critically reviewed the conceptual design provided and found that the downstream culverts under the roadway were shown to be the controlling factor, not the proposed weir. This allowed the weir design to be reduced from 68 feet to 20 feet, resulting in considerable cost savings for the City while providing the same level of service.

Our team looks forward to assisting the City on future stormwater projects. For more information, contact Jordan Varble, PE at [email protected].

 

 

 

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Collier County Redistricting

 

What occurs once every ten years, only in an “odd-numbered” year, and affects each and every one of us? Redistricting! Redistricting is the process of reshaping the geographic areas of our communities served by representatives in Congress, the State Legislature, County Commission, and School Board to reflect the latest population data of the United States Census.

After completing the decennial census, the United States Census Bureau delivered 2020 Redistricting data for Florida and its counties in August 2021. Census data for Collier County revealed population growth from 321,520 people in April 2010 to 375,752 people in April 2020. This information is typically released several months earlier, but was delayed due to challenges including the pandemic. This forced an expedited process by government entities to complete the necessary re-drawing of commission district boundaries to balance population of districts for elected officials. Johnson Engineering’s planners assisted Collier County with the redistricting effort to ensure a robust public outreach program. The program emphasized engaging and informing citizens about the process and the alternative redistricting maps.

Johnson Engineering Planner, Amanda Martin, led public outreach efforts by preparing a Public Outreach Plan. The plan outlines statutory requirements along with additional strategies to provide information and notice to the public about the redistricting process. Amanda assisted Collier County with meeting arrangements, presentation material, handouts, and documentation of ten meetings with civic groups and municipalities, including the Collier County NAACP, Immokalee Chamber of Commerce and Everglades City. Additionally, we assisted Collier County with hosting evening public meetings in each of the five districts of the County to facilitate public involvement and gather comments on five alternative redistricting maps. To reach all citizens, remote participation was available through Facebook Live; translators attended the public meetings; and notices in the newspaper and handouts were provided in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. These efforts resulted in a decision by the Board of County Commissioners on December 14, 2021 to adopt the new district map that they found best provides for equitable, compact, and regularly shaped districts for ten more years of election cycles to come.

For more information, contact Amanda Martin at [email protected].

 

 

 

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It’s official. Our Port Charlotte office has moved!

We are excited to announce that our Port Charlotte office has moved to 17833 Murdock Circle, Port Charlotte, FL 33948. We will bring in 2022 from this new location! Our Port Charlotte team is no stranger to this area. We’ve been located off Murdock Circle for 30 years and will celebrate this anniversary milestone in April of 2022 with an open house. This new office location will positively impact our clients by helping reduce operating expenses, since we will now own the building. We have established strong and trusted relationships in this area and look forward to continuing to serve our clients.

For more information contact Chris Beers, PE, PSM, at [email protected]

 

 

 

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