Short-term Lido renourishment begins Thursday

The city and Lido Key residents hope a long-term shoreline renourishment project, proposed by the Army Corps of Engineers, will stem the tide of erosion in the area over the next several decades. In the meantime, they hope a project set to begin Thursday will act as a serviceable stopgap.

Through the middle of March, dredging teams will take up to 197,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass and place it on Lido Beach. Funded in part by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the project was approved to restore sand lost following Tropical Storm Debby in 2012.

The project covers about 1.8 miles of shoreline, extending from Lido Pool toward Ted Sperling Park at South Lido Beach. While segments of the beach are undergoing restoration, they will be sectioned off and reopened to the public following completion. Dredging will take place 24 hours a day and seven days a week until the project is finished.

The scale of the project was increased last summer, as the more contentious Army Corps project — which would take sand from Big Pass, which has never been dredged — was undergoing scrutiny from Siesta Key residents. Both city and county officials have stressed the importance of protecting the eroding Lido shoreline, and residents in the area have said it’s both a short-term and long-term issue.

“If we have a catastrophic or even a small storm, we’re in serious trouble,” said Carl Shoffstall, president of the Lido Key Residents Association, in a previous interview with the Sarasota Observer. “We need to do something.”

Contact David Conway at [email protected].