Corps now looking at dunes instead of levees as key part of ‘coastal spine’

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  Mike Morris May 8, 2019

Sand dunes, not 70 miles of levees and gates, would flank flood gates at the mouth of Galveston Bay under a new plan the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is studying to protect the Houston-Galveston region from storm surge.

The proposal is the latest version of the Coastal Spine, a $31 billion barrier the Corps selected last year — a decade after Hurricane Ike, the cyclone that spurred the discussion — as its preferred method for mitigating the catastrophic fallout of a strong storm hitting Galveston Bay.

The Corps’ shift is a response to concerns from residents on Bolivar peninsula and Galveston Island, who found the agency’s original proposal to build levees on the barrier islands disruptive.

“Once we started getting those comments, it became very clear,” Corps Project Manager Kelly Burks-Copes said, noting that dunes were always an option. “We dropped that barrier solution and formulated a new solution, which is a dune-and-beach system along the front of Bolivar and along the front of Galveston below the seawall.”

That was welcome news to Bolivar resident Margaret Lindlow.

“I didn’t really care for that barrier wall running down the middle of the peninsula,” she said. “I know something has to be done, and if we have to put some kind of barrier there, then I think it should be at the beach.”

The proposal — which has not yet shifted the project’s cost or its 2035-at-the-earliest completion date — would have the Corps bolster the existing dunes by plugging beach access roads to create a continuous barrier, and, in some cases, restoring access with arched walkways or roadways over top of the added sand.

The agency also has scrapped a single 25-foot-high gate at the mouth of Galveston Bay for two smaller gates, Burks-Copes said. That approach would be cheaper and allow ship traffic to continue if one gate malfunctioned. Experts from England, the Netherlands, Russia and elsewhere are helping redesign the gates to lessen the constriction of water flow at the mouth of the bay, she added, a key concern of environmental groups worried about the effect on marine life.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Corps-now-looking-at-dunes-instead-of-levees-as-13830672.php

[thackney]

My previous beach house in Surfside, TX had seen the dunes destroyed after a particularly bad storm, but not a hurricane.

[Elderberry]

My previous beach house in Surfside, TX had seen the dunes destroyed after a particularly bad storm, but not a hurricane.

And if you're beachside and the grassline moves,  then Public Beach encroaches on your land.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Isn't that amazing, we are replicating what nature knows is the best way to handle the destruction caused by water.

The big problem will be that, unlike a levee, sand dunes shift back and forth and are not static.

That will be an issue for landowners.

[thackney]

And if you're beachside and the grassline moves,  then Public Beach encroaches on your land.

Yes.  I had three lots, one in front of the house and one behind.  Not much left of the front lot but the encroaching dune.