Sand Key Nourishment Beginning This Month

Nourishment of the beaches of Sand Key is slated to begin later this month and the plans will be presented this week.

Belleair Beach Community Center will be hosting an open forum with Pinellas County Coastal Manager Andy Squires and staff from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Squires and the engineers will be on hand to answer questions from the public about the plan.

Ground work for the project will begin later this month with sand being placed on Sand Key in late April or early May.  The project is then scheduled to move south to North Redington Beach over the summer.

The entire beach nourishment project is expected to be completed by October 2012.

More than 1 million cubic yards of sand will be moved from a location twelve miles west of Sand key to an area one to two miles offshore. From there, it will be pumped on to the beaches.  

During the project, active beach construction areas will be closed to the public.

For more information on the Sand Key nourishment project, visit www.pinellascounty.org/environment/coastalMngmt/sandkey.htm