Mangrove Restoration Project Moves into Final Phase

The ambitious Fruit Farm Creek Mangrove Restoration is inching closer to completion. Contractors recently completed road paving, shared use path construction and sodding on East San Marco Road.

The City of Marco Island was in charge of having four 60-inch culverts installed under San Marco Road as their part of the mangrove restoration project - the largest such project in Florida history. The culverts will restore tidal flow to the mangroves forests south of San Marco Road that were cut off when the road was constructed circa-1940.

“In order to put in those culverts,” said Justin Martin, the city’s public works director, "we had to cut through those sidewalks. “We gave the contractor a change order and they restored those sidewalks."

The mangrove restoration project now moves into its final phase.

Project manager Corey Anderson, wildlife biologist with FWC, said the final dredging work should take about a month to complete.

The price tag of the project is around $3 million at the moment, according to Anderson. Marco Island residents pay for nothing.

"This is supported by funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), and the State of Florida,” Anderson said, "for a fisheries disaster related to hurricane Irma. Several million dollars went to habitat restoration for fish habitat, including the Fruit Farm Creek project. We’re looking at over $3 million. That’s all Federal funding. Marco Island is getting the good end of the deal there.”

"They have a dredging contractor that should be starting in about a month to start cutting those waterways,” said Mike Daniel, the city’s public works/construction manager. “They started it earlier but they had to re-bid.”

Daniel said the culverts are working now and will work even better once dredging is completed.

“The water is moving,” Daniel said. "It used to be diked up. It will flow better once they get their dredging completed.”

Prior to the mangrove restoration project, San Marco Road had only one small culvert that was choked off with vegetation. 

"The culverts are a lot bigger,” Daniel said. "There are four culverts now. There used to be one. Now there are two sets of two 60-inch culverts. The culverts are polyurethane. They’re huge. You can see them at low tide."

“They’ll last 100 years, easy,” Martin said. “Once they finish their dredging it will spread that water out into the mangrove area on the south end. That should accelerate the re-growth in that area."

As far as the shared use path is concerned, there are just a few details left to complete. The path is open for cyclists and pedestrians.

“We still have some signage to do,” Daniel said. 

The San Marco shared use path is now complete from Residents’ Beach to Goodland Drive. The completion of the San Marco Road shared use path is a key piece of the island’s master plan for a comprehensive network of shared use paths and in-road bike lanes.