USACE to go door-to-door to secure rights-of-entry from individual landowners in Freeport vicinity to access property as part of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Project

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District, Real Estate Division will be going door-to-door in the vicinity of Freeport on  September 28-29, to secure rights-of-entry from individual landowners in order to access property as part of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay, Texas Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) and Ecosystem Restoration Project. The rights-of-entry are necessary to conduct various investigative activities (surveys, cultural resource investigations, geotechnical investigations) and will be mostly along the existing levee alignment.

“These investigative activities support the transition from conceptual designs to implementable project features,” said Eddie Irigoyen, Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay (CSRM) in Freeport, TX and Vicinity Project Manager.  “These investigative activities are necessary to continue to move conceptual designs forward to construction and these rights of entry are good for 12 months."   Landowners can specify that they want to be called before we access their property and District personnel, and our contractors, comply with those requests.

The purpose of this project is to enhance energy security, reduce the risk to human life and critical infrastructure, maintain and restore coastal habitat, and identify opportunities to enhance existing hurricane protection systems as part of the District’s comprehensive plan to increase Texas coastal resilience against the intense storms that frequently strike the 400-mile coastline.

The existing Hurricane Flood Protection Project in Freeport consists of approximately 43 miles of levees, wave barriers and floodwalls, pump stations, multiple gates, and culverts. The recommended plan proposes construction of floodwalls, raising of levees, replacement of vehicular closure structures, and construction of a navigable gate structure in an active barge canal. The Non-Federal Sponsor on this project is Velasco Drainage District, and the majority of the proposed work will be within the right-of-way of the existing Hurricane Flood Protection Project. This project is currently in the design phase and construction is not expected to begin until 2022.

The Freeport and Vicinity Coastal Storm Risk Management Project is a component of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay, Texas Coastal Storm Risk Management and Ecosystem Restoration Project which includes project areas in Orange County, Freeport and Port Arthur. The Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay project is separate from the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibility Study, but both are components of Galveston District’s comprehensive plan to increase Texas coastal resiliency.