Posted on July 19, 2020
The dredging of Big Pass and renourishing of south Lido Key’s highly-eroded beach is due to commence this week after a Tampa Judge denied a last-minute attempt to halt the project.
The plan to remove about 1.3 million cubic yards of sand from Big Pass and spread them on 1.5 miles of south Lido Key has been in the works for several years and challenged at every step by Siesta Key residents who have formed Save Our Siesta Sand 2, a group that says the dredging will likely have a deleterious effect on Siesta Key.
This past week, Judge Steven Merryday, Chief District Judge for the middle district of Florida in Tampa, faulted Save Our Siesta Sand 2 for filing its attempt for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the project in a tardy manner.
The Siesta Sand 2 organization waited until 3 business days before the dredging work was due to begin to file its request with the court. Merryday said that the late filing suggested either “inexplicable obliviousness” or a “calculated attempt” to delay the project.
Merryday noted that the permit was issued for the project in March and that the “emergency” cited by Save Our Siesta Sand 2 is of their own creation and due to their tardiness.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) which is undertaking the project as the first in a multi-year plan to dredge and fill Lido Key, said that delaying the dredging project would cost no less than $48,000 per day.
Save Our Siesta Sand 2 argued that the project falls under the rubric of a “Major Federal Action” and that a further analysis of the effects of the dredging must be performed.
But with Merryday’s ruling, the project is due to proceed unencumbered unless summer storms interfere.
The City of Sarasota is funding part of the dredging project and has maintained that not only are commercial and residential properties threatened by the highly-eroded shoreline, but critical public infrastructure has also been made vulnerable.
The dredging will proceed 24 hours per day/7 day a week and will spread sand south to north reaching the Lido Beach Club by Aug. 1 and continuing to the Lido Pavilion and public beach a month later. The dredging should be finished in mid-October.
Cottrell Contracting Corporation is performing the work after it was awarded the $12.68 million contract. The City of Sarasota is pitching in $6.9 million.
Source: lbknews
