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referring to this morning. He wished to begin with a brief history of the project. Project_ History & Identification In the early 1960s the Florida D.O.T. established the preliminary alignment for the Indian River Boulevard corridor from Oslo Road to 85th Street or Wabasso Road, which traverses in a north/south direction through Indian River County. This alignment actually traversed environmentally sensitive lands, and at that time in the mid 1970s the only implementation of the Indian River Boulevard project was a one -mile section of the roadway, which was a 4 -lane divided roadway between 17th Street and the Main Relief Canal. In 1980 the County contracted with Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Engineers, to design a roadway, now known as Phase III of the Indian River Boulevard, from the Main Relief Canal to 37th Street (Barber Avenue). This was actually the second phase of the Boulevard project, but it was delayed later on due to higher priorities for other roadways in the County, and it wasn't implemented.in the early 1980s. However, at that time, there were many permitting agencies involved in changing the alignment for Indian River Boulevard. Basically, in 1980 the Florida D.E.R. and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, as well as many other agencies which had review status for the Corps permit in the early 1980s, became concerned that the roadway would adversely impact. -the environmentally sensitive lands located , within Impoundment #22 east of the roadway. Biologists employed by many agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. E.P.A., the National Marine Fisheries, the Florida Fresh Water Fish & Game Commission, and the Florida D.E.R. worked with the County in the early 1980s to develop the least environ- mentally damaging alignment for the roadway. This alignment, as shown on this aerial photograph, which lies just east of the Vero Beach Country Club and is a northerly projection of the existing 33 BOOK i i'N"'Eau j