Old Tamiami Trail Road Removal
On April 7, we celebrated what would have been Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ 131st birthday and we are excited to share good news on the Everglades restoration front, in honor of her tireless work to restore the River of Grass.
Great progress continues on removing barriers to sending water south and restoring the Everglades. On Tuesday, March 30, Conservancy staff joined Governor DeSantis, the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board, Col. Andrew Kelly, Jacksonville District Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Superintendent Pedro Ramos of Everglades National Park, other state, federal, and tribal representatives, and conservation groups to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Old Tamiami Trail Road Removal.
For over 90 years, the unused Old Tamiami Trail roadbed has been an impediment to sending water into Everglades National Park, and ultimately all the way south to Florida Bay. The 5.5 miles of roadbed is estimated to be fully removed by January 2022, and is one of the components of a suite of Everglades restoration projects that will help reduce the high-volume damaging discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries by redirecting the water to rehydrate the Everglades and protect the drinking water supplies for over 8 million Floridians.
“Water was visibly flowing over the roadway area that has already been removed,” said Marisa Carrozzo, Everglades & Water Policy Manager, “This project underscores how critical it is to harness the current momentum on Everglades restoration to realize ecosystem benefits like this as quickly as possible.”
Other important projects for sending water south include finishing the 6.7 miles of Tamiami Trail bridging by 2025, adding to the over two miles already completed in 2019, and the Central Everglades Project (CEP). CEP includes the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, which combined with other authorized projects will send significant flows south to the Everglades and reduce damaging discharges to the northern estuaries by 55%.
