Town wraps up truck renourishment

By next week, Longboat Key residents will notice less traffic on Gulf of Mexico Drive, as the town plans to finish its beach renourishment truck haul by Saturday.

Contractor Earth Tech Enterprises Inc. will deliver the last of 300,000 tons of sand slated for mid-Key as part of the $10.9 million project, according to a news release. The town chose to truck in sand from a mine in Immokalee in Central Florida, which resulted in about 150 trucks traversing the roadways six days per week.

While the town has undertaken the project, Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium biologists have relocated 138 sea turtle nests from renourishment sites, which accounts for about 16% of all Key nesting this year, according to the release.

The town will use the same contractor for an emergency truck haul in September, in which 37,000 cubic yards of sand will shore up beaches in from of the Resort at Longboat Key Club. Town officials aim to dredge about 200,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass prior to the truck haul to supplement the shoreline.

Residents of south-end neighborhoods have allowed the town access to their roadways for that project, said Public Works Director Juan Florensa at a Kiwanis Club of Longboat Key meeting last week.