Wekiva Parkway: After 5 years, gopher tortoise relocation efforts near completion

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Finishing the Wekiva Parkway project doesn't just include building the road. Part of the process includes protecting and moving gopher tortoises that are known to live along the environmentally sensitive corridor.

Environmentalists have identified about 40 tortoises burrows in the last section of the Wekiva Parkway project, but not each one contains a tortoise.

Project biologists said they discovered tortoises in the first two burrows they checked Friday.

They said there are an estimated 26 tortoises in 40 known burrows.

Watch: Why is the Wekiva Parkway almost a year behind schedule?

Weather conditions affect when biologists dig for the threatened species.

"We have to have temperatures where we are capturing them and releasing them," said Mark Brooks, a project spokeswoman. "Those temperatures have to be forecasted at 50 degrees for three nights after we release them." %

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The tortoises collected Friday are among the final ones to be relocated for the project. They will be released at a preserve in Osceola County.

Wekiva Parkway officials said they aim to complete the work by Christmas.

It has cost $1.7 million to relocate almost 900 tortoises since construction began in 2013 through this past June.

Cox Media Group