The reef will be located 1,500 feet offshore in about 20 feet of water just south of Washingtonia Park. It will be comprised of more than 4,000 individual concrete blocks and limestone rocks specifically designed for the project. The units are 3-feet tall and will partially settle into the sea floor, leaving the limestone rocks exposed. The reef will encourage the colonization of corals, tropical fish and other marine life in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea.
More than 600 reef units were manufactured. The new reef is a mitigation project related to the the 2016 beach renourishment effort that placed 650,000 cubic yards of sand along the beach in Pompano Beach, Lauderdale-By-The-Sea and Fort Lauderdale to restore the shoreline that had eroded due to storms, hurricanes and sea-level rise.
The barge will become a familiar site this summer and fall to beachfront condo owners and beachgoers. The project is expected to be completed by the end of October or possibly mid-November, depending on the weather. The plan is to deploy 300 reef units at a time. Once completed, the barge will need to travel back to the Port of Palm Beach to be reloaded with additional reef material until the project is completed.
Broward County has contracted with Resolve Equipment, Inc., a Fort Lauderdale firm, to build and install the reef.
