The Tamiami Trail long has impeded the natural flow of the "river of grass" through the Everglades/NPS

A $60 million grant to Everglades National Park clears the way for planning the final segment of a long-running project to remove the Tamiami Trail barrier to normal water flows through the "river of grass."

In the late 1800s, the southern end of the Florida peninsula was largely undeveloped, and although the area was a rich and complex ecosystem, it was viewed by some as merely wasted "swampland." Fresh water, including sometimes copious amounts from tropical storms, flowed freely southward as a shallow, slow-moving sheet of water through the large but shallow Lake Okeechobee, and then onward through the Everglades to coastal estuaries and the sea.

The area's mild winter climate made it attractive for residential and agricultural development and tourism, but the problem was what to do about all that "swamp." The answer was decades of construction of an elaborate system of dikes, canals and pumping stations to drain wetlands and try to control flooding -- not an easy task in this relatively flat terrain. But the work went ahead, and it turned into a classic example of "if you build it, they will come," and much of south Florida is now both a major agricultural empire and home to millions of people.

But a key missing link for that development in the early 1900s was a highway linking Miami on the state's east coast with Naples on the west. The answer was a road known as the Tamiami Trail (now US 41), and to keep construction costs down, the primary technique when work began in 1928 was to simply bring in fill, build a very long berm, and lay a roadway on top. The road was a boon for developers, but the dam-like roadfill created a huge ecological problem by drying out some areas and depriving Florida Bay of freshwater inflows.

In recent years there have been incremental steps to remove the barrier to normal water flows. The last step took shape Monday, when the Federal Highway Administration announced it would grant $60 million to Everglades National Park through the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects program to complete the Tamiami Trail Next Steps project. 

Completion of the Tamiami Trail project will remove the water flow impediment into Everglades National Park, address a key regional water flow imbalance, and sustain a critical transportation link between southwest Florida and Miami, according to the National Park Service.

"At the northern end of the Everglades, excess water flowing into Lake Okeechobee has forced massive discharges of algae-causing water into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers," pointed out Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg. "Meanwhile, in the southern Everglades, the lack of fresh water impacts wildlife and destroys critical habitat. In Florida Bay, it is ruining the delicate saltwater balance, killing seagrass habitat needed to support world-class recreational fishing in the Florida Keys.”

The 6.5-mile Tamiami Trail Modification Next Step Phase II project, Eikenberg said, “will open up the bottleneck, allowing the maximum amount of clean water into Everglades National Park.”

The federal highway funding will match a $43.5 million commitment announced last November by then-Florida Governor Rick Scott, and subsequently fully supported by Governor DeSantis and the Florida Legislature. The combined $100 million federal and state funding will provide for the raising and reconstruction of the remaining 6.5 miles of the eastern Tamiami Trail roadway to allow the water to flow into the park. The park has been deprived of its fresh water for many decades and this project will allow water managers to significantly increase water flows rehydrating the 1.5 million acres of park lands, including Florida Bay.  

“Projects like this one are made possible by the full cooperation and collaboration between federal and state agencies. We are very fortunate to have the strong support from our partners in the State of Florida, as well as many members of the Florida delegation who have supported this project from the beginning,” said Everglades Superintendent Pedro Ramos.

The NPS, FHWA, and the Florida Department of Transportation are to begin the preliminary design process this month. FDOT is expected to issue the design/build contract by the middle of 2020, and full project completion is anticipated by early 2023.

"The completion of the Tamiami Trail project will be a tremendous victory for Everglades restoration and the end-result of 30 years of hard work by local communities and state and federal leaders," said Cara Capp, Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. "Tamiami Trail is a worthy recipient of the federal FAST Act funds, which will deliver long-term benefits for the greater Everglades ecosystem while also enhancing public safety, economic benefits, and environmental sustainability through green jobs that benefit our state’s economy. The federal and state investments will safeguard the future of Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, providing needed funding for the final phase of elevating the Tamiami Trail roadway to reconnect freshwater flows and habitat."

Previous Tamiami Trail improvement projects included the one-mile eastern bridge completed in 2014 and the 2.3 miles of western bridges completed this past April. This project will once and for all complete all the work required on the Tamiami Trail before water can fully flow from the northern part of the system.