Taylor Slough – South Florida Water Management District

With approval from the Governing Board, the South Florida Water Management District implemented an innovative plan to deliver needed fresh water to Florida Bay. This is an immediate first step to help reduce salinity levels in the bay and promote the recovery of seagrasses killed during a severe drought in 2015, providing critical relief.

 The South Florida Water Management District is working to improve undesirable resource conditions in Taylor Slough while maintaining flood mitigation within the C-111 basin. KEMRON was awarded the Taylor Slough/L-31W Levee and Plug Project during the fall of 2016. The project site encompasses approximately 600 acres. The scope of the Taylor Slough/L-31W Levee and Plugs Project is to construct ten (10) earthen plugs at various locations along the L-31W canal, construct a seepage barrier in the S-332D Pump Station Drainage Basin, and modify the gap in the L-31W levee to reduce its width to 500 feet and create a weir at an elevation of + 2 feet. Sealing the S-332D Pump Station Discharge Basin is to reduce return seepage to the L-31 Canal. The work includes the removal of rock rubble and concrete mat along the canal banks for the installation of a new sheet pile wall. The area landward of the new seawall portions is being backfilled with sediment from previous canal dredging. The canal bottom is being filled with tremmiee concrete. Riprap is being installed waterward of the new sheet pile seawall.

L31W Berm and Weir: A gap was previously excavated in the L31W levee near the S332 / S332i pump stations. It is not desirable for Taylor Slough water levels, when higher than the detention cell, to flow into the detention cell. Therefore this gap is being filled with a portion that will consist of an adjustable crest weir, a portion that will consist of a fixed crest articulated block mat fixed weir crest and the remainder of the gap is being constructed as a levee to match the adjacent levee to the north and south of the weir.

To reduce west to east seepage portions of the L-31 W canal system, a total of ten (10) plugs are being placed along the canal. In total this work involves the excavation and placement approximately 450,000 cubic yards of material within 14,000 linear feet of the canal. All excavated material is processed through screens and crushers to meet required specifications. Backfilling in the water is accomplished by placing the processed material in the canal in successive loads in uniformly distributed layers. The top 1-foot above the water level is placed in a 1-foot lift and compacted to not less than 85% of the maximum density at optimum soil moisture content of + 2 %.

Watch us work at the Taylor Slough Site!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Y-Nr3P_3HhYHAlkKxHngw