North end beach renourishment project moving forward

Renourishment to take about one month to complete

MELISSA REID
Staff Writer
mreid@lbknews.com

The town will soon begin its interim beach renourishment of the highly erosive north end of Longboat Key. The public beach access at North Shore Road is closed due to the lack of beach and the dangerous conditions there. The Longbeach Condominiums and 360 North Condominiums, which are both at the north end, have lost their beaches and several of their buildings have been placed in jeopardy due to the erosion.

Town Manager Bruce St. Denis informed the Town Commission this week that the town will be placing approximately 140,000 cubic yards of fine, white sand at the north end beaches. The bidding process will begin Aug. 30 when St. Denis said the bid package will be placed on the Internet. Then, a pre-bid conference will be scheduled with contractors for Sept. 21. Accepting bids will most likely begin around Oct. 26, if there are no addendums required due to the public comment period and if there are no changes made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. St. Denis also said the beach renourishment process will begin around December or January.

Public Works Director Juan Florensa said the bidding process requires advertising for 30 days, then the town has to make sure the bids meet the requirements, which takes approximately seven to 10 days. Then to get the bid out will take 30 to 120 days, he said. Adding to the process is the fact that dredges are very busy this time of year, according to Florensa, and therefore the mobilization process takes a long time.

The estimated cost for the entire job will be somewhere between $4 to $4.5 million, said Florensa, and the sand will be dredged from an area off Anna Maria Island and be brought by barge to just offshore Longboat Key, where it will then be pumped onto the beach. There it will be spread along the beach with the use of various types of construction equipment. Florensa said the construction crews can place 12,000 cubic yards of sand per day on the beach. The whole interim renourishment will take about one month to complete.

As for the next beach renourishment, Florensa said that project is scheduled for 2012 or 2013.

“This renourishment is an interim stop-gap measure until the big 2012 beach renourishment,” said Florensa.

An even more permanent solution than beach renourishment is the construction of breakwaters, which Florensa said is still scheduled for construction around the same time as the 2012 renourishment.

“We are moving forward with the breakwaters, because we have determined that without a structure, the sand will not stay,” said Florensa.

Breakwaters are wall-like structures that will be made out of rocks and placed parallel to the shoreline approximately 200 feet offshore.