Sand Key beach nourishment

To prepare for the beach nourishment project on Sand Key, Pinellas County needs a total of 461 easements within the project area.

These perpetual easements allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to place sand on private property while guaranteeing public access to the easement area.

The barrier island called Sand Key extends from Clearwater Pass to John’s Pass. By the 1960s, much of the beach was very thin or had eroded back to the seawalls.

To address the erosion, Congress authorized the Federal Shore Protection Project in 1966 along the entire developed gulf coast of Pinellas County that included Sand Key, Treasure Island and Long Key.

The initial construction effort for Sand Key was completed in 1993. Successive nourishments in 1999, 2006, 2012 and 2018 have repaired and built up the beach significantly with the shoreline now about 200 feet from the seawall.

These cyclic nourishment events have created a buffer zone that erodes gradually between nourishments and is replaced every six years.

Without a continuous cycle of nourishment that replaces the sand in this buffer zone, the shoreline will continue eroding landward into the dune and eventually to the seawall.

The project area extends from Clearwater to Redington Beach, excluding Belleair Shore. Each easement extends from the erosion control line landward to the seawall or to the coastal construction control line if no seawall is present.