Everglades Restoration Update

Dan Conservation, Environment, Florida

Everglades
SFWMD worked hard removing a 5.5 mile section of Old Tamiami Trail in Miami-Dade County to restore the natural flow of clean freshwater south. The project was expected to be completed in 2022, and is one of 29 priority Everglades restoration projects identified by Governor Ron DeSantis.

(NSF) — A project to remove a section of the Old Tamiami Trail roadbed in a Miami-Dade County section of the Everglades has been finished months ahead of schedule. The completion of the project, which was announced Tuesday morning, will allow more fresh water to freely flow south through the Everglades. The road, which was built nearly 100 years ago, had blocked the southward flow.

Ron Bergeron, with the South Florida Water Management District, says restoring the natural flow should also help with other water-related issues such as red tide.

Everglades Restoration Update

“Moving water south is so important. That reduces the amount of water going east and west, to reestablish the natural sheet flow from the northern Everglades all the way to Florida Bay.”

The removal of the roadbed is expected to increase the southerly flow of freshwater by more than 220 billion gallons per year.

From The News Service of Florida