Emergency Renourishment at Lido Beach Underway

An emergency renourishment project at Lido Beach, Florida, began on November 5 and is expected to be completed by February 12 despite a series of weather delays. Five separate cold fronts have moved into Florida causing wave action that put a stop to dredging each time. So far 14 days of work have been lost, but the job completion is still on schedule even if it means more pumps will need to be brought in.

The work is a preliminary fix for a larger, long-term renourishment that the City of Sarasota and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District expect to start in the fall of 2019. The long-term project would recycle sand from Big Pass as needed over a 50-year period.
In May, the City of Sarasota declared a local State of Emergency for Lido Beach due to problems caused by erosion from tropical storm Hermine (2016), Hurricane Irma (2017) and other storms and tidal action.

The city contracted with Coastal Dredging of Louisiana to remove approximately 185,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass and place it on Lido Beach to restore the shoreline and dunes. The company is using the dredge Cledus along with a booster barge, two tender boats, a 3 cubic yard front end loader, JD 700 bulldozer, JD 200 excavator, an offshore booster barge and 16,000 feet of pipe. Sand is being dredged from the New Pass channel located off the northern end of the island and being pumped via pipe to the beach. Sand ramps have been constructed over the pipeline on the beach in multiple locations to provide access.

The city contributed $600,000 to $3.9 million project with the remainder of the funding coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.