SR 589 (Suncoast Parkway 2) Listed Species Surveys and Permitting

Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise needed a firm to provide environmental services for the new alignment of a 13-mile limited access highway that extends SR 700/US 98 to SR 44.  The project required extensive coordination and monitoring to ensure minimal impact to protected species and their habitats.

DRMP conducted a variety of natural resource surveys, planning, and permitting services for this new limited access highway.  DRMP was instrumental in the formal consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and Florida Natural Areas Inventory personnel to develop plans to minimize and/or avoid impacts to listed species, including the Florida scrub jay, red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, eastern indigo snake and the southeastern American kestrel.  Species-specific surveys were conducted for the Florida scrub jay and the gopher tortoise throughout the project corridor and protected plant surveys were conducted within state-owned lands.  DRMP assisted the Turnpike in obtaining permits from the USFWS and FFWCC and project approval from the Acquisition and Restoration Council.  A Conservation Permit was obtained from the FFWCC to relocate gopher tortoises from the 665 burrows identified onsite. 

The new extension of Suncoast Parkway will provide a north-south alternative to the congested US 98.  With our team’s protected species coordination and permitting, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise and the surrounding communities of Citrus and Hernando counties can be assured that the project will meet both the transportation needs of the region and be constructed to minimize impacts to wildlife and their habitats to the greatest extent possible.