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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Tamiami Trail facilitates travel but inhibits vital water flow into Everglades Park. |
Public comments are due on May 9 on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ “tentatively selected plan” (TSP) to address one of the longest-standing congressional mandates for restoration of the Everglades. The TSP is a key component of Modified Waters Delivery included in the 1989 legisla-tion that expanded Everglades National Park to include the northeast Shark River Slough, the park’s principal water supply.
The purpose of “Mod Waters” is to restore the sheetflow of water that sustained the Everglades for thousands of years before being disrupted by attempts to “reclaim” the land for agriculture. Now, the Corps hopes to begin construction by October.
“The Tamiami Trail Modification Limited Reevaluation Report and Environmental Assessment,” released on April 9 for a 30-day public-comment period, consists of 746 pages. In painstaking detail, it sifts and analyzes 27 alternatives to explain the reasons for recommending construction of a $225.4-million, mile-long bridge elevating the Tamiami Trail, U.S. 41, on the northern edge of Everglades National Park and raising the headwater stage constraint in the L-29 Canal that parallels the roadway.
The Tamiami Trail, built in the 1920s, effectively blocks sheetflow into the park and has seriously degraded the Everglades ecosystem. Environmental advocates pushed for plans to elevate as much as 10.7 miles of the road in the area, but the Corps last year estimated the “Everglades Skyway” would cost $1.6 billion.
“It’s not all we hoped for, but it’s a significant step forward,” says Dan Kimball, Everglades National Park’s superintendent. The TSP’s modification will increase peak flow capacity 47% and almost double the volume of flow into the park from 177,000 acre-ft per year to 340,000 acre-ft. Historical flow was 470,000 acre-ft, he says.
“This is a step in the right direction, but not what we had hoped for in terms of the benefits,” says Jackie Weisblum, Miami-based Audubon of Florida’s Everglades coordinator. Audubon is drafting its comments, which will support the TSP. “We want increased flow sooner rather than later,” she says.
Construction costs are ballooning. Estimates from 2005 are completely obsolete, and the project remains “sensitive to material-cost inflation,” says Stuart J. Appelbaum, Everglades division chief in the Corps’ Jacksonville, Fla., district. On the other hand, “Right now, we’re in a very favorable bid climate as the economy slows,” he adds.
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