Longboat Key to dig into $25M beach renourishment project

Longboat Key kicked off a multimillion-dollar beach renourishment project Wednesday to restore new sand to several eroded stretches of beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.

The project has three major components, said Town Manager Dave Bullock.

"The first one is we're hauling some sand in by truck. ... putting sand down in the central part of the island and hitting those eroded areas that are more or less in the center of the island," he said. "The other two phases will occur probably starting in July."

In an interview with the Bradenton Herald, Longboat Key Mayor Jack Duncan said the project costs about $25 million, funded via a referendum passed a few years ago.

Additional phases of sand placement are scheduled through the fall and will include sand dredged from New Pass and Longboat Pass, as well as additional trucked-in sand for a small portion at the south end of Longboat Key.

Bullock said 60 to 100 trucks hauling sand are expected to travel daily to Longboat Key, coming from Bradenton Beach and St. Armands Circle in Sarasota.

"We'll probably be hauling sand up into September," the town manager said. "We wanted to wait until the worst of the traffic is behind us. Generally, spring and summer have lower traffic, certainly, than March."

Upon completion of the first segment, Longboat Key officials said truck haul operations will shift to the Atlas Street access area to place an estimated 20,000 cubic yards along the beach segment from Westchester to Casa del Mar (4621 to 4825 Gulf of Mexico Drive).

Operations, a release states, will then shift to the Gulfshore/Buttonwood Cove access area to place 85,000 cubic yards of sand from Gulfshore northward to Pelican Harbour (3710 to 4241 Gulf of Mexico Drive).

The central project will conclude with the placement of another 60,000 cubic yards from Buttonwood Cove southward to the Veinte Condominium (3710 to 2675 Gulf of Mexico Drive).