Fort Lauderdale's Kinney Tunnel temporarily closed due to high water
FORT LAUDERDALE - The Florida Department of Transportation tells CBS4 that it was forced to shut down the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel in Fort Lauderdale at 7 a.m. on Tuesday after two days of significant flooding.
A spokesman told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that FDOT mobilized pumps to remove the water from the tunnel that runs beneath Los Olas Boulevard, but FDOT discovered damage to one of its permanent pumps.
The spokesman said FDOT was working to repair the damage to the pump as quickly as possible and remove all the water.
The city of Fort Lauderdale tweeted that the tunnel was closed "due to high water until further notice. We are experiencing flooding in some area of the city due to King Tides exacerbated by this weekend's rainfall."
The closing of the tunnel brought traffic to a standstill both north of the tunnel and north of Broward Boulevard and south of the tunnel at S.E. 7th St. as police redirected vehicles to alternate routes.
Kaushal Karia, the owner of Primo Liquors and Fine Wine said, "They have go to do what they have go to but this has had a negative impact on our entire shopping center. I live on the other side of the tunnel and it normally takes me 5 minutes to get to work. Today, it took me 25 minutes. I imagine that some customers wanting to make purchases would go elsewhere. My business is off at least 25 percent."
The last time the tunnel was closed was in July as part of a $28 million improvement project.
"Every time they close this tunnel as you can see it just pushes traffic away from our intersection," he said.
A drive around Fort Lauderdale shows some flood waters remaining in the Rio Vista neighborhood, not far from the Kinney Tunnel
Nancy Gassman, Ph. D., the Assistant Public Works Director, said, "Overnight we got 2 to 3 inches of rainfall in the city of Fort Lauderdale. That rain fell as high tide was coming up. We are currently experiencing high tides between 8 and 14 inches above predicted. So when we have that amount of rainfall on top of a hide tide there's just no way for water to get out. You have to wait for the water level to come down in order for the roads to dry out and the water to be able to discharge."
She said, "We are certainly coming to the end of the wet season. To have that amount of rainfall in November is unusual. The predicted King Tide for Thanksgiving weekend is predicted to continue until Monday of next week and will be our last predicted King Tide of the year."
The tunnel reopened Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. after it was shut down for almost 10 1/2 hours.
