Engineering firms Stantec and Jacobs, operating as the Galveston Coastal Services Joint Venture, were selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, to design a 26.7-mile-long levee and floodwall system along the coastline near Galveston, Texas.

The eight-year, $1.9 billion construction effort, known as the Orange County Coastal Storm Risk Management, is intended to increase the area’s preparedness to respond to natural disasters and increase resistance to long-term impacts due sea level rise, land subsidence, increased frequency of abnormally heavy rainfall events and regional drought.

The project is focused on a stretch of the upper Texas coast from Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay. It includes Gulf and bay waters, barrier islands, marshes, coastal wetlands, rivers and streams, and adjacent areas that make up the interrelated coastal area.

Extreme weather events

Over the past 10 years, the area has been altered both physically and economically by extreme weather events such as Hurricane Harvey, which caused billions of dollars in damages.

A boat is seen washed up on shore in front of a home on the coast of Galveston after Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13, 2008 with wind speeds of around 110 mph. Source: USACE Galveston District

The Corps of Engineers said that Texas' entire Gulf Coast historically averages three tropical storms or hurricanes every four years. These generate coastal storm surges and sometimes bring heavy rainfall and damaging winds hundreds of miles inland. The Corps said that future projections suggest increases in hurricane rainfall and intensity. An expected rise in sea level will result in the potential for greater storm surge damage along the Texas Gulf Coast.

According to the Texas General Land Office, the state's ports provided $368 billion in economic value to Texas, representing 23% of the total state gross domestic product. The ports also handled around one-quarter of all U.S. port tonnage annually.

In addition, the state generates more than one-fifth of the energy produced in the U.S., including 30% of the U.S. crude oil refining capacity and 25% of the nation’s identified natural gas resources. Most of the state’s refineries are located situated near Gulf Coast ports, and two liquefied natural gas terminals are located in the coastal region.

Texas coastal region accounts for roughly 24% of the state’s population, 23.5% of the state’s businesses, 26% of the state’s workforce and accounts for 29% of the state’s total annual average wages.

Design packages

The Orange County project awarded to the Stantec-Jacobs joint venture consists of seven design packages for coastal storm risk management from the edge of the Sabine and Neches River floodplains to near Orangefield, Texas. The project will include:

• 15.6 miles of new levees,
• 10.7 miles of new concrete floodwalls and gates,
• seven new pump stations to mitigate interior flooding during surge events,
• 453 acres of marsh restored through a mitigation plan, and
• 560 acres of forested wetlands preservation.

The project will also include navigable sector gates to reduce surge penetration.

Plans call for the design packages to be completed in 18 to 24 months. In addition to Stantec-Jacobs, the partnership includes 20 local, small business firms representing 40% of the design budget. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2022 and project completion is expected in 2026.

This project was authorized under the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Study. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District and the Texas General Land Office completed the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Project study in December 2017. The study recommended building new levees in Orange County and raising the existing levees in Port Arthur and Vicinity and Freeport and Vicinity Hurricane Flood Protection System to reduce the risks of tropic storm surge.

Broader coastal protection

The overall Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility Study is currently one of the largest civil works feasibility studies at the Corps of Engineers, with plans of coastal protection across 76 miles of Texas coastline. The plan calls for coastal storm resiliency measures to include surge gates, vertical lift gates, ring barrier, height extension of the seawall as well as beach and dune measures.

Total cost could be as high as $32 billion. The Corps said that recovery from Hurricane Ike was around $38 billion.