County proceeds with review of Big Pass dredge

As the next step in the third party independent peer review of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s proposed Big Pass dredge to bulk up Lido Key’s beaches, Sarasota County has reached out to Atkins, a global design, engineering and project management consultant.

Atkins is listed in the pre-approved coastal engineering services library, which includes seven engineering companies that county staff has vetted and approved for certain projects.

Laird Wreford, coastal initiatives manager for the county, said the county has reached out to Atkins and expects to meet with the firm within a few days to deliver the expected scope of work and give the firm enough information to put together a proposal.

The scope of work will include the input collected from the community, which Wreford gathered in the fall, that identified the three top community stakeholder concerns: park user experience in Ted Sperling Park at South Lido Key, possible impact to Siesta Key and its beaches and possible impacts to boat navigation in Big Sarasota Pass.

"That will give (Atkins) an idea of the kinds of issues we would like answered, and how we get there from here," Wreford said. "It will be a give and take." 

Wreford said county staff had conservatively estimated the contract will cost between $15,000 and $50,000, and Atkins will fill the county in on how much work can be accomplished within that range.

Save Our Siesta Sands 2 (SOSS2), a community organization working to protect the Key and its beaches, has expressed concern with the pre-selected list, saying the firms on this list cannot be unbiased as all of them have worked with the Army Corps previously. However, Wreford said that a firm’s previous work with the corps doesn’t automatically disqualify it from the list or mean there is a conflict of interest.

"We want to make sure we do everything in our power to make sure that’s not the case, but any coastal firm in Florida or the southeastern United States has done projects with the Army Corps at one time or another," Wreford said. "To have the expertise we need, we would need someone who has worked with the corps or we wouldn’t have anyone left."

In the county’s initial research, there hasn’t been any signs of a conflict, Wreford said, but staff will discuss it with the firm when they meet and before a contract is signed. 

"We want an unbiased but professional, expert look, on the potential impacts of the Lido project," Wreford said. "Like getting a second opinion from another doctor – it gives you that better sense of what jives with what the first doctor recommended." 

The county approved hiring an independent review firm in August. After the corps announced its intensions to redesign the dredge, the county decided to wait for the new design, which the corps revealed Monday, March 30.

SOSS2 has retained a coastal geologist Dr. Robert Young to examine the Army Corp’s models in the re-design as an additional check on the effects on Siesta Key. Young is the director of the program for the study of developed shorelines for a partnership between Duke University and Western Carolina University.

"We want to have another set of eyes. We’re not sure the third party review will be a fair appraisal," said Jeanne Ezcurra, the treasurer and director on the board of directors for SOSS2.