September 29, 2009, 5:58 pm
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded an $81 million contract
to a Florida company to build a road bridge that will help restore
fresh water flows in Everglades National Park, nourishing its ecosystem.
Beginning in November 2009, Kiewit Southern Company of Sunrise, Fla.
will remove one mile of the Tamiami Trail road that crosses the park --
environmentalists view the section as a harmful barrier to natural
water flows to the northeastern Everglades -- and replace it with the
bridge.
"Tamiami Trail currently acts as a dam that starves the Park of its
lifeblood -- water," Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades National
Park, said in a statement posted on the website of the Jacksonville
District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which announced the
awarding of the contract.
The contract includes constructing the bridge, and raising and
reinforcing an additional 9.7 miles of the Tamiami Trail, allowing
higher water levels in an adjacent canal, which will drive increased
flows into the park.
Completion of the bridge and road-raising was projected for 2013.
Funding for the construction project was provided by the Department of
the Interior, the statement said.
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