Posted on November 9, 2026
Charlotte County commissioners have approved a contract reported at $29 million to pump new sand onto several miles of Gulf beaches battered by a string of hurricanes, with the work targeting Manasota Key and South Beach. The deal cleared the Board of Commissioners as part of its consent agenda at Tuesday’s meeting, with no discussion before the vote.
According to yoursun.com, the project will renourish the shore from the Charlotte-Sarasota line south to Don Pedro Island, with Englewood Beach and Stump Pass Beach State Park as the public beaches included in the work. WINK News reports the contract’s actual value as $29,348,880, awarded to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company, LLC, a Houston-based firm. Bid documents specified 590,000 cubic yards of fill for Manasota Key and 400,000 cubic yards for South Beach, per the same station’s reporting.
Sand Will Come From the Gulf Floor Off Manasota Key
The new sand will be dredged from the floor of the Gulf off Manasota Key itself, the same outlet reports. Great Lakes was the lowest of four bidders on the project and previously handled Charlotte County’s last major renourishment effort in 2020, which was linked with a Sarasota County project at the time.
The estimated start date is Nov. 23, though the article notes that the actual timeline depends on a pre-construction meeting between county staff and Great Lakes leadership, who still need to determine firm start and end dates. That timing also hinges on how long it takes to transport and assemble the large dredging equipment the project requires.
Conflicting Timelines on Completion Date
The project is designed to start after turtle nesting season ends Oct. 31 and, according to yoursun.com, finish before nesting season begins again on March 1, 2027. A separate report from Suncoast Post, published in July, put the estimated completion date at April 30, 2027, while cautioning that the schedule remains an estimate and could change. Joanne Vernon, a county engineer on the project, said the contractor is well aware of the deadline pressure. “The contractor is very aware of the requirements of when they have to be completed and off of the beach,” Vernon said, per yoursun.com’s report.
Years of Storm Damage Drove the Need for Repair
The push for renourishment follows years of pounding from Hurricanes Ian, Nicole, Idalia, Debby, Helene and Milton, which moved hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand on and off Manasota Key and Don Pedro Island. Charlotte County’s own disaster recovery materials describe Hurricane Ian in particular as having caused severe shoreline erosion at Manasota Key, Don Pedro, and Stump Pass, displacing large volumes of sand and heavily damaging dune systems and seawalls, exposing properties to storm risks.
Hurricane Milton also opened a new inlet, known locally as Milton’s Pass, at Stump Pass Beach State Park in 2024. That pass has mainly remained closed through the summer and fall of this year. Photos documented the shifting inlet earlier this year, showing kayakers walking their crafts over a shoal covered by about a foot of water in April, and roughly 25 feet of dry sand separating the Gulf from Lemon Bay by May.
How the Project Will Be Paid For
Funding for the renourishment is drawn from several sources. The project is expected to receive $8.2 million from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, $7.6 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and $1.1 million from the Florida Department of Emergency Management, according to yoursun.com’s reporting. Charlotte County itself expects to contribute $13.8 million from tourist development taxes and taxing districts tied to Manasota Key and Don Pedro-Knight beach renourishment property assessments.
The work echoes an earlier chapter in the key’s history. An earlier Manasota Key renourishment project wrapped up its main portion on May 1, 2020, with a final phase completed later that month, and Charlotte County spent $21.3 million on that effort while Sarasota County kicked in another $8 million. A county presentation also describes a 2024 Manasota Key project that placed 880,280 cubic yards of sand over 3.82 miles, with Great Lakes again serving as contractor. Suncoast Post describes the newly approved work as the second full-scale nourishment of the Manasota Key shoreline, built on the general design template from that 2019-2020 project.
Sea Turtle Rules Still Apply to the Project
Any construction timed around turtle nesting season also has to account for Charlotte County’s Sea Turtle Protection Ordinance, which the county says protects threatened and endangered sea turtles nesting on county beaches and addresses construction within the sea turtle lighting zone — areas outside the Coastal Construction Control Line that the county identifies as posing additional concerns, according to Charlotte County.
Past renourishment work on the key offers a reminder that fresh sand doesn’t always stay put. An earlier survey found that some erosion-control lines south of the public Englewood Beach had shifted into the shallows of the Gulf, leaving public sand underwater in places, yoursun.com reported separately. A county project manager at the time said sand from an earlier renourishment that moved offshore after storms still helped protect and stabilize the shoreline even after it shifted.
