Corps awards contract for C-111 South Dade project

Published Nov. 2, 2015

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District has awarded one of the three remaining construction contracts for the C-111 South Dade project, an Everglades restoration project in Miami-Dade County, Fla.

The $13.9 million construction contract was awarded to the Polote Corporation from Savannah, Ga., Oct. 29. The contract, known as Contract 8, involves constructing a detention area that will connect the C-111 South Dade project to the Modified Water Deliveries to Everglades National Park (Mod Waters) project.

“The northern detention area is an important piece of infrastructure that is needed to restore conditions in Everglades National Park,” said Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds, Jacksonville District Deputy Commander for South Florida. “It will allow additional water to flow into this vital ecosystem and will also enable us to have more operational flexibility in the southern portion of the system.”

The C-111 South Dade project will restore natural hydrologic conditions in Taylor Slough and the eastern panhandle of Everglades National Park while also preserving the current level of flood protection for agricultural lands in South Dade County. Once completed, the project will work in concert with the infrastructure constructed as part of the Mod Waters project and will create a hydraulic ridge that will help prevent ground water from seeping out of Everglades National Park.  As a result, this will enable additional water flow into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.

“We are pleased to see that the Army Corps has made their award to begin construction of the C-111 North Detention Area (or Contract 8). This is the last remaining component of the seepage management features that will allow us to begin restoring water flows to Northeast Shark River Slough, while mitigating for adverse flooding concerns,” said Pedro Ramos, Everglades National Park Superintendent. “This marks a new era in water management in the southern Everglades, which is critical to both ecosystem restoration and water sustainability.”

The project is currently 75 percent complete.  Two construction contracts remain for the project and are scheduled to be awarded within the next two years. Construction and operation of the C-111 South Dade Contract 8 components are necessary to maximize restoration objectives of the Mod Waters project. 

“This is the vital connection needed to enable portions of the Mod Waters Project and the C-111 South Dade project to operate more efficiently,” said Tom Teets, South Florida Water Management District Director of Everglades Policy and Coordination. “It also represents continued momentum in a year that has seen significant Everglades restoration progress.”

Construction and operation of these components are also necessary to raise the maximum operating limit of the L-29 Canal under Increment 2 of the G-3273 and S-356 Pump Station Field Test. The data collected during this water operations field test will assess how newly-operational project infrastructure integrates with the current water management system, and how to maximize ecological restoration objectives. 

The information obtained from the first two increments will be used in the development of the Combined Operating Plan, a comprehensive integrated water management plan for the southern portion of the Everglades ecosystem.  Increment 1 of the field test began Oct. 15 and is planned for approximately two years, with a minimum duration of one year. 

Restoring historic water flows to Everglades National Park is a complex endeavor that requires many projects to work in concert. Two of these projects are the Mod Waters and C-111 South Dade projects.  They are part of the Foundation Projects, which the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) builds upon to deliver essential restoration benefits to America’s Everglades.

 

Additional information on the C-111 South Dade project available at: http://bit.ly/C-111_SouthDade  

 

 

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Contact
Jenn Miller
(904) 232-1613
jennifer.s.miller@usace.army.mil

Release no. 15-095