Jacksonville, Fla. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District is scheduled to begin construction in August to backfill an additional 3.8 miles of the channelized Kissimmee River. This will help restore the original Kissimmee River in a section known as Reach 4. The construction project will include backfilling the channelized river, minor dredging of the historic river oxbows, and other features.

Wading and migratory birds flock back to the
restored river.

On July 18, the Corps of Engineers awarded the contract to WRS Infrastructure and Environment, Inc. of Tampa, Fla. The $18.2 million contract is expected to take approximately 2½ years to complete.

This contract is continuing on the success of earlier phases of the project to restore this historic river. The Kissimmee once flowed a meandering 103-mile course from south of Orlando to Lake Okeechobee. Between 1962 and 1971, the river was channelized and two-thirds of the historic floodplain was drained to prevent seasonal flooding. The curving Kissimmee was turned into a 56-mile canal, renamed the “C-38.” The channelization caused unintended changes, including disruption of ecosystem functions and composition and drastic losses in populations of wintering waterfowl, wading birds and game fish.

In 1992, Congress approved historic legislation to restore much of the river and its associated wetlands. Since the first phase of the restoration was complete in 2001, at least 10 species of shorebirds have returned to the restored area.

Col. Paul Grosskruger, commander of the Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, reports the Corps is very pleased with the response of the Kissimmee and floodplain to restoration. “We are witness to the power of nature to heal itself,” he said. “With the Kissimmee, we aren’t at the finish line yet, but we certainly are in the home stretch.”

When finished, the project will restore more than 40 square miles of river-floodplain ecosystem, including almost 20,000 acres of wetlands and 46 miles of historic river channel. This is being accomplished by increasing water levels in the upper chain of lakes at the river’s headwaters, filling in 22 miles of canal, excavating some original river channel, and other components. The restoration is expected to conclude in 2012, with monitoring to follow.

Today, the project is more than half-way complete. Ten of 22 miles of channelized river have been backfilled. More than 102,000 acres of land has been acquired. The contract for this section is at the southernmost corner of the Avon Park Bombing Range and the boundary of the Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. It is in Highlands and Okeechobee counties. It is the second of two phases for Reach 4. The first phase was completed in October 2007.

Wetlands reappear in a river floodplain.

The Kissimmee River forms the headwaters to the greater Everglades ecosystem. This project is a forerunner to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which is restoring the famed River of Grass along with other federal and state efforts. Kissimmee River Restoration is a partnership of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District. For more information, visit www.saj.usace.army.mil/dp/krr/index.htm or call Nanciann Regalado at 904-334-8954.