Sarasota County is getting out the big shovels. Officials have signed off on roughly $15 million to dredge Hudson Bayou, the tidal waterway tucked just south of downtown, in a bid to lower neighborhood flood levels and cut down on those fast-moving inundations that can shut key evacuation routes. County engineers say the project will scoop out tens of thousands of cubic yards of silt and shore up eroded banks so streets and homes drain faster when storms roll through.
What the county approved
The Hudson Bayou Dredging & Resiliency Project carries a price tag of about $15 million and is designed to remove approximately 80,500 cubic yards of sediment in order to restore the bayou’s 100-year level of service. According to the City of Sarasota, the funding package combines $13.7 million in Resilient SRQ (CDBG-DR) grant dollars with about $1.3 million in local surtax revenue, which is expected to fully cover the work.
The same application notes that bank stabilization, native vegetation and post-construction monitoring are built into the design, with the goal of cutting down on future shoaling and boosting water quality once the dredge is complete.
Where the money came from and the vote
The Hudson Bayou effort is one piece of a broader Resilient SRQ disaster-recovery package that county leaders are using to repair and harden storm-damaged infrastructure. As reported by Your Observer, county commissioners carved out nearly $30 million in Resilient SRQ funds in November to pay for Hudson Bayou along with other major waterway projects backed by HUD CDBG-DR money.
Television coverage has walked residents through the county documents and the approval, summarizing the project’s goals and funding structure, as reported by WTSP.
How it will work and when
The timeline is not exactly overnight. As outlined by the City of Sarasota, final design and permit submittals are expected in summer 2026, with federal approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection targeted for late 2026. Construction mobilization is projected for late 2027, and substantial completion is penciled in for summer 2028…