FELLSMERE — The Fellsmere Water Control District is suing the Florida Department of Transportation to stop Interstate 95 construction between Fellsmere and Sebastian.
The problem, says the water control district, is that the Department of Transportation is destabilizing the banks of a drainage canal and destroying an access road to the canal with construction of a bridge that is part of the I-95 widening project.
That bridge is about 5 1/2 miles north of the I-95 Fellsmere exit.
In a bad storm the drainage canal, which is just south of the C-54 main canal, could become clogged with debris because of the breached bank, said the suit.
Not only could the blocked canal cause flooding, the compromised access road would mean that emergency vehicles could not get to the canal to clear it, which would compound the problem.
“It’ll be another New York City,” said Rodney Pillman superintendent for plant operations at the Fellsmere Water Control District.
Pillman estimated that about 10,000 people would be affected.
The Department of Transportation said, as defendant in the lawsuit, that it is simply trying to provide “a safe, viable and balanced statewide transportation system that ensures mobility of people and goods and enhances economic prosperity.”
Furthermore, said DOT, the canal in question between Fellsmere and Sebastian is not even under the jurisdiction of the Fellsmere Water Control District. The department said it’s an issue for the St. Johns River Water Control District.
“What we’re concerned about is definitely in our jurisdiction,” said Pillman. “There may be another issue for the St. Johns Water Control District.”
The Fellsmere Water Control District lawsuit is the second water control suit to be filed by attorney Michael O’Haire, who also sued DOT on behalf of the Indian River Farms Water Control District last summer.
In that very similar case, the water control district said that DOT had compromised the banks of a canal with concrete bridge supports, which are part of the I-95 widening project at the Vero Beach exit.
The compromised banks, said that lawsuit, could crumble, cause a bottleneck, then flooding.
Circuit Judge Cynthia Cox ordered DOT to stop construction and “do nothing to destabilize or weaken the canal” until she can see the evidence.
Cox also denied a DOT request to dismiss the Fellsmere Water Control District lawsuit and will also look at the evidence in that lawsuit.
She has not, however, issued an injunction to stop construction at the Fellsmere site.
Already, after heavy rain from Hurricane Sandy and other storms, considerable bank erosion and some clogging has occurred at both construction sites.
To protect the banks of the canals and the access road, said the water control districts, DOT could have lined the banks and access road area with concrete support called “rip-rap.”
“By doing that they would be protecting the residents,” said Pillman. “But it hasn’t been done.”
The widening of I-95 between the Indian River County line and the Malabar exit is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2014 – unless the lawsuits slow down construction.
