Eroded Turtle Beach to get a facelift in spring 2023
On some days, families and sunbathers crowd the narrow strip of beach at Sarasota County’s Turtle Beach Park.
These beachgoers will soon have more choices over where to place their umbrellas and folding chairs, as Sarasota County plans to restore Turtle Beach next spring.
The county plans to add around 92,000 cubic yards of sand to south Siesta Key to repair damage from Hurricane Hermine in 2016.
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But some Siesta residents have concerns about the project, including that it could intensify traffic on the key.
Hurricane Hermine erodes Turtle Beach
Sarasota County completed a renourishment project on Siesta Key in May 2016. Workers placed over 700,000 cubic yards of sand on a long stretch of south Siesta, which included Turtle Beach, according to a county memo.
Later that year, Hurricane Hermine eroded the beach. Though the hurricane made landfall on Florida’s Big Bend coast, waves from the storm still affected Sarasota County.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Florida Department of Emergency Management and the county originally agreed to defer repairing Turtle Beach until the next planned renourishment in 2026, according to the county memo.
Later on, in November 2019, FEMA introduced the idea of doing a truck-haul project, in which sand is brought to the beach by trucks. This was an alternative to waiting until the next renourishment.
The county moved forward with that option.
Details about the repair project
The project’s design work, which is 90% complete, is expected to cost $373,249. The design consultant estimates that the construction will cost approximately $5.7 million, but that value is subject to change, county staff said.
Curtis Smith, the project manager, said the new sand will come from a sand mine in Florida. Dump trucks will transport the sand to Turtle Beach Park and deposit it in a large pile on the beach. Off-road trucks will take some of the sand to the end of the beach where they will start replenishment. They will add the sand to that area before spreading and grading it and continuing the process along the beachfront.
Smith said the contractor will be required to leave part of the beach open and accessible at all times.
Concerns about the project
Catherine Luckner, the president of the Siesta Key Association, the island’s neighborhood association, said the group is concerned about the project’s proximity to turtle nesting season, which begins May 1. The project will occur in March and April.
Smith said the county is planning to finish construction by the start of the nesting season.
The Siesta Key Association is also concerned about how the project’s timeline will overlap with a recently started road project. The Florida Department of Transportation will be resurfacing, replacing sidewalks and making other improvements on Midnight Pass Road between Stickney Point Road and Shadow Lawn, according to the agency.
The sand dump trucks will have to pass through the intersection of Stickney Point and Midnight Pass on their way to Turtle Beach, and that intersection is part of the road project. Luckner said both projects will be using heavy equipment.
“We’re worried about the interaction of all of that kind of industry,” she said. Luckner added that tourists will have to navigate the area.
Smith said, though, that FDOT won’t be doing resurfacing work at the Stickney Point/Midnight Pass intersection at the same time as the beach repair project. They do plan to drill underneath the road at the intersection while the beach project is occurring, but that work will be done from the rights-of-way, not from the roadway.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota County's Turtle Beach to be repaired in spring 2023
