Work to improve the median pair on Royal Poinciana Way between Bradley Place and North County Road has been completed.
Surfers brave cold waves after the cold front in Palm Beach
With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius and winds gusting up to 20 miles per hour, surfers flocked to the Atlantic Ocean in Palm Beach on November 11 to catch some waves.
- A median beautification project on Royal Poinciana Way was completed on time and on budget.
- The project was a partnership between the City of Palm Beach and the Garden Club of Palm Beach, which donated $575,000.
- Despite an earlier delay in trail materials, the project was completed ahead of the November 1 preseason deadline.
A project with a questionable preseason completion schedule finished on time and under budget in Palm Beach.
Work to beautify the median pair on Royal Poinciana Way between Bradley Place and North County Road has been completed, City Engineer Patricia Strayer confirmed.
The redesigned centerpieces for one of the city's main entrances are the result of a partnership between the city and the Garden Club of Palm Beach, which donated $575,000 toward the work. This is the organization's largest donation to the city and one of the largest donations ever made for a single beautification project in Palm Beach.
“We’re really happy with it,” said Ginny Parker, Garden Club city improvement officer. “I think it’s such an important place in our city, and to have that influence – I think it’s wonderful.”
At the time of the Sept. 9 City Council meeting, the finish date for work on the project was unclear due to a mix-up of materials to be used for the newly added trails. City staff had moved forward with concrete production while the approved site plans called for crushed shells. The council had ordered staff to use the crushed shell and complete one median and clean up the other if necessary by November 1, then return after the winter season and finish the other median.
This plan was ultimately not necessary.
The city's public works staff gathered to complete the medians before the start of the season, said Ginny Parker, the Garden Club's city beautification officer.
“Paul Brazil and the entire team at Public Works really pulled it off,” she said. “They're really good friends with the Garden Club. They promised it would be done by November 1st and I think they really wanted to keep that promise and they worked with the contractor and made it happen.”
City staff told the council in September that they may not have enough crushed shells to complete the paths, but the amount of aluminum edging available is also a concern, Parker said. The public works team's efforts were “heroic,” she said.
“It was a great performance,” Parker said.
Mayor Danielle Moore said at the Nov. 12 council meeting that she and Councilman Ted Cooney, who lives on Royal Poinciana Way, walked the median a day earlier.
“Although it is newly planted, I think it will be beautiful once everything is established,” she said.
Construction costs had pushed the project's initial price tag from $550,000 to a high of $979,902 after the switch from concrete paths to gravel paths was ordered in September. But the project was completed under budget and the final cost was $737,988 with a balance of $110,698, $575,000 of which came from the Garden Club's donation, Parker said. The city took over the part that the club did not pay.
The project was designed free of charge by Jorge Sanchez of SMI Landscape Architecture and the work was completed by A Cut Above Landscape and Maintenance.
The Garden Club tries to complete a city beautification project in a prominent location every few years, Parker said. A few years ago, the club worked with the city on the Southern Boulevard roundabout. In 2021, they refreshed the planting beds on the medians of Royal Poinciana Way. That same year, the city and the Garden Club completed the Tidal Garden at Bradley Park, which included a new drainage system and predominantly native plants to combat the problem of flooding during king tides.
“This was a very ambitious project,” Parker said of the recent median redesign. The full support of the club's board, including past president Christine Aylward, and financial support from local organizations such as The Breakers helped make this happen, Parker said.
The design inspiration came from photos of a small town in Portugal, she said. Working with Sanchez, the team incorporated elements of the symmetrical gardens with paths they saw in the images, while also considering the needs of restoring the medians that are part of one of Palm Beach's landmarks, Parker said. Those requirements prevented the design from including taller trees, she said.
The original design included reworking all three medians along Royal Poinciana Way between the Flagler Memorial Bridge and North County Road, she said. Instead, crews only replaced the two east medians to keep costs down, she said.
The towering Royal Palms that lined both sides of the median remained, as did the statue of Henry Morrison Flagler, which faces west toward the Intracoastal Waterway.
The design incorporated as many native plant species as possible, Parker said. Each central strip includes five inner circles, planted with Lignum Vitae, also called Holywood, in three of the circles and purple sage in the other two.
Public Works also surprised the Garden Club by planting 23 Lysiloma trees on the north and south sides of Royal Poinciana Way, which were included in the original plan but were probably outside the project budget, Parker said.
“Once they mature, they will provide the shade we need, and the city wants to continue working to bring these shade trees here. This was a really wonderful addition to the project,” she said.
There are still a few small finishing touches to be done, Parker said. Purple coral creeper — a ground cover with a soft bloom offset by green leaves — will be grown and planted before Thanksgiving, she said. Once these plants grow and are formed into hedges, they will surround the outer edges of each median, Parker said.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.