causeway be built near the Northeast Shark Slough northeast of Everglades National Park, all road fill removed that would otherwise be adjacent to the bridge, the 57 culverts that are already in place maintained, and the appropriate water flow rate maintained under the non-causeway portions of the Tamiami Trail crossing the Everglades. The proposed causeway is being called the Everglades Skyway by the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, World Wildlife Fund, and other organizations in an Internet-based effort to lobby Florida and United States government officials for project construction money. In December 2009, construction began on a project to lift a portion of the road to allow the more natural water flow into the southern Everglades. At the Everglades Foundation's America's Everglades Summit held in mid-May 2010, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, Thomas Strickland, revealed that the Interior Department's National Park Service released a draft Environmental Impact Statement recommending an additional of bridging the Tamiami Trail. The Everglades Foundation is a group that supports the Tamiami Trail bridging and dedicated to Everglades restoration. In 2013, Florida announced a $90 million commitment to elevate of the road to allow natural drainage into the Everglades and Everglades National Park. In June 2019, a $60 million grant was announced by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to Everglades National Park through the Nationally Significant Federal Lands and Tribal Projects program to complete the Tamiami Trail Next Steps project, intended to allow more north-to-south water flow into the Everglades. This grant matches a $43.5 million commitment by the State of Florida for the raising and reconstruction of the remaining of the eastern Tamiami Trail roadway. As of September 2020, the plan to complete and finish the Tamiami Trail has been approved for the final steps of the project. Through the Trump Administration, The Florida Department of Transportation, and Everglades National Park, they have been able to finalize these plans. This will help improve water flow within the wetlands and to restore many parts of the Tamiami Trail and the Everglades National Park as a whole. These plans to begin the final steps will start November 2020 and should be finished by the end of 2024. References Further reading External links Endpoints of U.S. highways: U.S. Highway 41 and U.S. Highway 94 Biography of James Franklin Jaudon at the Everglades Information Network & Digital Library at Florida International University Libraries U.S. Route 41 National