Beach renourishment slows for Sally, dune addition approved

Beach renourishment on Anna Maria Island ground to a halt in the wake of Hurricane Sally.

The two dredges that pump sand from offshore to the beaches left the open water in the Gulf of Mexico near the island to be harbored Sept. 12 at Port Manatee in Palmetto, as Sally, then a tropical storm, passed through the Gulf more than 175 miles from the island, creating large swells as it headed northwest.

The dredges are part of a $17 million renourishment project piping sand from offshore to the beaches to replenish and prevent further erosion. Beach renourishment began July 8 near 77th Street in Holmes Beach.

“As the seas continue to calm down and the contractor determines the conditions to be safe, they will return the dredge to the sand source and resume beach construction,” Doris Otero, project manager with Aptim of Boca Raton, an environmental engineering company servicing the project, wrote The Islander Sept. 15.

The work resumed Sept. 19 near 17th Street North in Bradenton Beach.

Otero wrote that the storm had minimal impact on the already renourished beaches, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a funding source for the $17 million project, along with the state and Manatee County.