GALVESTON, Texas (Nov. 11, 2015) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a $6,104,050 contract to Mike Hooks Inc., for maintenance dredging of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) navigation channel from the Galveston Causeway to Bastrop Bayou in Galveston in Galveston County, Texas.
The contractor is required to remove approximately 1,035,000 cubic yards (CY) of maintenance material from this 25-mile reach of the GIWW using a pipeline dredge.
"The GIWW is an essential component of the nation's navigation network extending for 1,109 miles from Appalachee Bay Florida to Port Isabel Texas," said Seth Jones, an operations manager with USACE Galveston District's Navigation Branch. "The GIWW is the third ranked inland waterway in the nation handling 126 million short tons of cargo. The 379-mile Texas portion of the GIWW handles more than 73 million short tons of cargo annually valued at $42 billion."
As part of the contract, approximately 130,000 CY of maintenance material will be used beneficially to create 70 acres of marsh within the Pierce Marsh area and 12,000 linear feet of earthen berms will be constructed to contain the material.
"Our project delivery team included the Galveston Bay Foundation, Texas Parks and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Department of Transportation," said Jones. "It was because of their instrumental input throughout the design phase that we are going to get a good start on the Galveston Bay Foundation's long-term marsh restoration plan at Pierce Marsh complex."
According to Jones, the incremental cost for the marsh restoration work was provided by the Texas Natural Resource Trustees (Texas General Land Office, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Texas Parks and Wildlife) and the Federal Natural Resource Trustees (NOAA on behalf of the Department of Commerce and USFW representing the Department of Interior). The Trustees combined funds from three Natural Resource Damage Assessment settlements to pay the incremental costs for the Pierce Marsh restoration portion of the project. The restoration funds are results from the settlement of Natural Resource Damage Assessment liabilities from the nearby Malone Services and Tex Tin superfund sites and Martin Products; a 2003 acid spill that occurred in the Texas City Channel.
Work is scheduled to begin this month with an estimated completion date of May 2016.
The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 270 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.
Learn more about the Texas coast at http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/TexasCoastValuetotheNation.aspx. For news and information, visit www.swg.usace.army.mil. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.
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