APRIL FOOLS: New canal system an eerie sight in Lakewood Ranch

With a gentle pull, the sheet covering Lakewood Ranch's newest project fell to the ground on Tuesday to unveil one of the area's most ambitious undertakings to date.

More than 100 area dignitaries gasped as they beheld "Ranch Canal." 

By 2022, two years after Waterside Place opens in Lakewood Ranch's extension into Sarasota County, a 37-mile system of canals should be completed, connecting the new seven-lake system in Waterside at Lakewood Ranch to Lake Uihlein adjacent to Main Street at Lakewood Ranch.

The $340 million project will serve two major goals, to connect the "old" Lakewood Ranch to the "new" with a sprawling waterway, and to add a Venice ... the real one ... feel to those who decide to call America's No. 1 master-planned community home.

"For years, people have thought more of our area as an 'inland' oasis that really didn't feature waterside living," said Project Manager Jack Uround. "That will end in four years. Besides these huge lakes in Waterside, we will have added this canal system — and, yes, we will have gondolas — that no other U.S. community can rival."

The canal will be shallow in depth, no more than 5 feet at its deepest spots, and will average about 30 feet across, just enough for two small boats to safely pass. No gas motors will be allowed on the canal system, which will be open to public traffic for a small fee to be determined.

A taxi service of gondolas will transport passengers to 16 designated terminals along the route. Twenty-four miles of the system will run through Lakewood Ranch communities, with 17 of those miles coming in the new Waterside of Lakewood Ranch.

Sarasota County Transportation Enforcer Sam Sonite said his office had no problem approving the project.

"Our biggest worry was how the canal system would interact with vehicle traffic on our roads," Sonite said. "They are adding an underpass at University Parkway, and another underpass will be built as the canal system crosses Lorraine Road twice as it weaves to its southern end. But those were the main hazards. In the communities, seven smaller bridges will be built to take streets over the canal."

Uround said the biggest problem to overcome was how to keep water moving through the system since most of it is being built on flat land.

The engineering team at Canalsrus handled that problem.

"It was a matter of calculating the energy gradient and energy levels as they moved upstream of the free discharge," said Waterflow Engineer Walter Houze. "Once we had that, we figured the water level at subcritical flow using the Newton method of iteration."

Houze explained that Lakewood Ranch's system of retention ponds will be critical to the system. Hydraulic pumps will be placed all along the system to push water out of the ponds and into the canal. Water will recirculate back into the ponds.

"It will actually help the ponds as well," Houze said. "The constant water circulation will keep out much of that smelly, green muck that forms in the summer."

The Ranch Canal's course will take it away from Main Street and through Country Club and Lake Club, going southeast until it crosses University Parkway just west of the Lorraine Road intersection. The canal will cross the Sarasota Polo Club as it heads south into Waterside, where it will break into several fingers as it mingles with the communities.

"Not only will this be an amazing amenity, but it will create lots of jobs," said Polly Tishion, who is planning a run for Sarasota County commissioner. "Think of all the people they will hire to paddle those gondolas, and more just to manage day to day operations."

Tishion said a new Canal Authority is likely to be formed to produce safety rules for the system.