GALVESTON, TX — The U.S. 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 Navigation Channel (MOCR) Maintenance and Sargent Beach Beneficial Use Placement project.
The contract — valued at $86.3 million — was awarded to Houston-based Orion Government Services, LLC, 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 Rhonda Gregg Hirsch, SWG Beneficial Use Operations Manager.
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 Mouth of the Colorado River navigation channel and adjacent sediment basin that would provide beach quality sand for nearby beaches, she said.
“Working together, the USACE Galveston District and the Texas GLO Coastal Erosion Planning and Response Act program brought one of Texas’ largest shoreline protection and beneficial use infrastructure projects — to date — to construction,” said Seth Jones, SWG Operations Manager for the Mouth of the Colorado River. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a significant impact to stabilize and improve a fragile and critical locale along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.”
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The federally funded part of the contract — pertaining to USACE — involves dredging approximately 1.07 million cubic yards of the Mouth of the Colorado River entrance and clearing sediment from the channel impoundment basin.
The GLO-funded part of the work involves construction of a 2,600-foot 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.
