Siesta Key road sinks further

Erosion is the ultimate destructor. It can tear the foundation from beneath a beachfront mansion and pull the remnants into the sea once it collapses — it leaves little evidence behind.

Cyclists and joggers who take the path through the closed section of Beach Road near Beach Access 3 will notice some new crevasses in the asphalt after Tropical Storm Debby accelerated erosion of the area, which is known as Sunset Point.

The crumbling infrastructure is only the start of the devastation that could come from another tropical storm. But, Sarasota County doesn’t have any plans for repairs or support for the roadway, according to County Commissioner Nora Patterson.

And there’s only so much sand bags can do to protect coastal areas from storm surge.

“It used to be a road with two lanes, but the county got sick of repairing it — so they started maintaining it as a one-way road,” she said. “Now it’s only accessible from one side.”

Mike Solum, environmental specialist with Sarasota County, remembers fishing off the pier stretching from the eroded area into the Gulf of Mexico. That was not the original intent, he said. It was built to protect the beach that once sat in front of Beach Access 3 but now sits as a gnarled mass of concrete. The horizontal blocks that once sat upon it have washed away, making the surf-soaked remains a dangerous spot for anglers.

Solum searched through archives of aerial photographs of Siesta and couldn’t determine when the groin was constructed, but noted that there were more than 100 miles of beach reaching into the Gulf in a 1948 picture, which contained the structure.

Mark Smith, a Siesta Key architect active in nearly every island association, said groins are a political zero-sum game.

“Groins are a mixed blessing,” he said. “Somebody wins and somebody loses. They seem to be a rather political way to handle renourishment.”

The winners from the groin placement on Sunset Point would likely have been the coastal property owners directly south of the pier. Diane Erne, who is a resident and member of the Mira Mar Association on Beach Road, notified Patterson about the state of the road. “You see people who don’t realize when the hole has suddenly gotten larger right past the very first duplex,” she said. “It’s really bad.”

Her concern is that people who frequent the area, particularly children on long boards, could be seriously injured. There are jagged rocks on the shore along the seawall where the tropical storm pushed asphalt cracks deeper into the ground.

Patterson, who was in attendance at the July 5 Siesta Key Association meeting, offered little solace.

“This isn’t an isolated (issue),” she said. “We had a huge hole open east of town. So, (Sarasota County Public Works) will be busy for a while.”