Taylor Engineering has worked with Brevard County since 2014 to develop a restoration project that will incrementally dredge over 642,000 cubic yards of muck sediments from Sykes Creek. The Sykes Creek project area is within the Banana River Aquatic Preserve, while the project area north of Merritt Island Causeway is within a manatee refuge. Project area waters do not meet Class III water quality standards and have experienced frequent algal blooms. Taylor Engineering’s work began with diagnostic and feasibility studies that identified the locations and depths of the muck sediments in the project area north and south of the Merrit Island Causeway. Taylor Engineering next designed a dredged material management area on a spoil island next to the Kiwanis Park (in Sykes Creek) and obtained state and federal permits for Phase I of the project. Mitigation for wetland impacts defined during permitting is complete. The project design meets construction standards for work in aquatic preserves and includes specific manatee protection conditions associated with work in several of the narrow canals within the dredging footprint. The dredging contractor successfully completed Phase I in early 2024. Phase II includes material handling at an upland site that requires trucking the material offsite to its final location. Phase II begins in later 2024 and is expected to run several years.