The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG), in collaboration with the Texas General Land Office (GLO), the Port of Bay City, and Matagorda County, have announced a contract award for the Mouth of the Colorado River (MOCR) navigation channel maintenance and Sargent Beach beneficial use placement project.
The contract—valued at US$86.347 million—was awarded to Houston-based Orion Government Services to perform maintenance dredging, construction of shoreline protection features, and beneficial use placement of dredged material near Sargent, Texas.
“This tiny community on the coast boasts one of the highest erosion rates on the entire Texas coast,” said SWG Beneficial Use Operations Manager Rhonda Gregg Hirsch.
The GLO completed the engineering design and permitting for structural solutions and beneficial use of dredged material for beach nourishment, complimenting a study the USACE initiated, Gregg Hirsh said.
At the same time, SWG was planning a major maintenance dredging project at the MOCR navigation channel and adjacent sediment basin that would provide beach quality sand for nearby beaches, she said.
The federally funded part of the contract—pertaining to USACE—involves dredging approximately 1.07 million cubic yards (820,000 cubic metres) of the MOCR entrance and clearing sediment from the channel impoundment basin.
The GLO-funded part of the work involves construction of a 2,600-foot (790-metre) angled terminal groin at Mitchell’s Cut, five nearshore breakwaters, and placement of 1.07 million cubic yards of dredged sand onto Sargent Beach. The placement of the dredged material onto the beach will begin at Mitchell’s Cut—on Sargent Beach—and stretch east for approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres).
The USACE said Sargent Beach experiences one of the highest erosion rate areas along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands. Studies conducted through the 1970s and 1980s indicated that storm surge was threatening to breach the island, potentially impacting the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.
In response, and according to mission requirements of the organisation, the USACE constructed an eight-mile (12-kilometre) revetment wall and dirt road between 1995 and 1998 to safeguard against such breaches.
