USACE Galveston District awards $5 million contract for GIWW dredging and beach renourishment project

Published Sept. 27, 2013

GALVESTON, Texas (Sept. 27, 2013) – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a contract in the amount of $5,034,950 to Orion Marine Construction Inc., to dredge the High Island to Bolivar Flare portions of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) in Texas.

The contractor is required to remove approximately 1.3 million cubic yards of dredge material and place the useable material on the beaches of Rollover Pass as part of a beneficial use beach renourishment project, partially funded by the Texas General Land Office through a non-federal cost share initiative.

"The USACE Galveston District contributes to the well-being, economic success and quality of life of local communities by employing environmentally and economically responsible ways to use dredged materials to improve eroded coastlines through beach renourishment," said Army Capt. Derek Thornton, an operations manager with the USACE Galveston District’s Navigation Branch. "While performing one of our primary missions of maintaining safe waterways for commercial traffic, we're able to work with our partners to ensure environmentally sound dredging and placement of the material."

According to Thornton, the Bolivar Flare portion of the GIWW will be addressed first due to significant shoaling which has impacted the barge industry.

Dredging will begin at the end of October 2013 with an estimated completion date of March 2014.

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 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

To learn more about dredging on the Texas coast, view our four-minute video at http://bit.ly/KLZQBM. For more information about beneficial use of dredged material, visit the USACE Galveston District website at http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/BeneficialUse.aspx. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.


Release no. 13-069