A key component of the $8 billion, 40-year Everglades restoration plan, the removal of a five-mile stretch of elevated roadbed, will be completed in January, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.

“That will improve the volume of water flowing south through the Everglades and support reducing harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries,” DeSantis said during a news conference near Shark Valley Loop Road in western Miami-Dade County.