GALVESTON, TX — HDR’s Dollar Bay Marsh Restoration Project won the 2024 Best Restored Shores Award from the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association. The Best Restored Shores program annually honors projects that enhance shoreline resiliency by addressing environmental degradation, storm impacts, climate change, and sea level rise in the United States' coastal, estuarine, and Great Lakes communities.
This is the third consecutive year an HDR project has been honored with this award, following recognition of the Lake Pontchartrain Shoreline Protection Project in 2023 and the Galveston Island State Park Marsh Restoration and Protection Project in 2022.
HDR’s work on the Dollar Bay Marsh Restoration included investigation of natural resources, general bottom conditions, oil and gas infrastructure, metocean conditions, and bathymetry. This data informed conceptual designs for marsh restoration alternatives, including intertidal marsh options and shoreline protection features. The final design of the project included marsh terraces utilizing existing site material, a series of graded riprap breakwaters for shoreline protection, and incorporation of existing oyster reef to serve as a wave baffle.
The construction of the marsh features and breakwaters began in late 2020 and was completed in May 2021. Since project completion, the vegetation has firmly taken hold with nearly 100 percent coverage of the fringe area, bringing back critical habitat to the area. The project’s first phase led to the acquisition and conservation of over 100 acres of coastal lands adjacent to the project site, and the subsequent Phase 2 breakwater project to protect this asset.
“The Galveston Bay Foundation has been at the forefront of protecting and restoring critical habitat in the region,” said Cameron Perry, Coastal Technical Director at HDR. “I’ve been privileged to work with them on this project and others that improve the health of the bay ecosystem.”
