Work on the first segment of a wider project to dredge thousands of cubic yards of sediment from the bottom of flood-prone Phillippi Creek is complete, though more work is planned, said Sarasota County Stormwater Director Ben Quartermaine in a video released by the county.
The $14 million project, from Tuttle Avenue to Beneva Road, was designed to alleviate the worst choke points in the waterway that drains much of the northern half of Sarasota County. It began in late 2025 and came to a close recently.
About 60,000 cubic yards of material was removed, Quartermain said, the equivalent of about 5,400 standard dump-truck loads. The work created, according to design specifications, a channel 50 feet wide by 4 feet deep at mean low water along the center of the creek…