Corps awards final pump station contract for Picayune Strand restoration

Published Oct. 15, 2013
The Faka Union Pump Station is scheduled to be completed in fall 2014.

The Faka Union Pump Station is scheduled to be completed in fall 2014.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District has awarded the construction contract for the third and final pump station for the Picayune Strand Restoration Project in Collier County, Fla.

 

The $75.7 million contract was awarded Sept. 5 to Archer Western Construction, LLC of Tampa, Fla., to construct the Miller Pump Station, which includes a 1,250 cubic feet per second (cfs) pump station, a tie-back levee system, a spreader basin and road removal and canal plugging that will rehydrate a portion of the 55,000-acre restoration project.

“By awarding this contract, we are one step closer in our restoration goals,” said Lacy Shaw, project manager. “When we first broke ground on this project in 2010, we hit the ground running and we look forward to maintaining this momentum alongside our partner, the South Florida Water Management District, to bring this restoration project to completion.”

 

The Picayune Strand Restoration Project was the first Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) project to break ground in January 2010. Once completed, the project will restore water flow across the landscape, rehydrate drained wetlands, provide aquifer recharge, improve estuarine waters and return habitat to threatened wildlife communities.

 

The full project features include constructing three pump stations, three spreader basins, levees to provide flood risk reduction to private lands west of the project, a mitigation project south of the site to maintain an existing manatee refugium, plugging 48 miles of canals and removing and degrading 260 miles of crumbling roads. Both the Faka Union and Merritt pump stations are currently under construction. The Merritt Pump Station is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013, the Faka Union Pump Station is scheduled to be completed in fall 2014, and the Miller Pump Station in 2018.

 

For additional information on the Picayune Strand Restoration Project, visit http://bit.ly/PicayuneStrand.