Pearland - Friendswood Edition | January 2023

TOP STORY

COST OF THE COASTAL BARRIER

Coast: Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jeerson and Orange. Sunstrum said the federal legislation authorizing the construction for the Coastal Texas Program will not include funding; the appropriation of funds is an additional step that Congress would need to approve in another bill. “The more money that we get from the federal government, the faster the construction will be,” she said. “And that obviously will impact costs just because of time passing and … rising cost of materials and all the other fac- tors that go into ination.” The maximum requested cost of the overall project is about $34 billion, Sunstrum said. The orig- inal cost shown in the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Feasibil- ity Study pitched to Congress in 2021 was $28.9 billion, but Sunstrum said this number increased over time due to ination. Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership and a member of the GCPD, said the federal government would be respon- sible for providing 65% of the funding for the protective elements of the proj- ect, while the GCPD would be respon- sible for the other 35%. “We’re not asking for all the money at one time; we can’t build all of it at one time,” Mitchell said. GCPD ocials have previously mentioned to Community Impact the possibility of utilizing resilience bonds to produce the local funds to match federal spending. These bonds are a way for large companies along the coast to reimburse the cost for the project: Companies in the area with facilities that could be impacted by storm surge would benet from the project and pay to support it. However, Sunstrum said there are no plans to issue bonds at this time and that the GCPD will seek state funding instead during the legislative session. Sunstrum said she doubts Congress will appropriate the entire $34 billion up front, but she is happy to see strong bipartisan support of the issue. “It kind of sells itself,” Sunstrum said. “All of these entities that are involved are really dedicated to see- ing it through and seeing it imple- mented in the right way, and I think that’s a unique thing that’s really important for a project of this size.” Widening the channel The other major construction in

The overall Coastal Barrier project’s funds will be divided among the gulf defense, bay defense and ecosystem restoration parts of the project with the vast majority of the fund projected to be spent on the main gates protecting from storm surge.

SPENDING BREAKDOWN About 65% will be federally funded and 35% locally funded by the Gulf Coast Protection District, which comprises Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jeerson and Orange counties.

LOCAL FUNDING OPTIONS The GCPD will seek funding from the state during the 88th legisl- ative session starting Jan. 10 to cover its portion of the cost.

TOTAL COST $34.4B

65% FEDERALLY FUNDED

35% LOCALLY FUNDED

Gulf Defense System Bay Defense System Ecological Restoration

Gulf Defense System

69%

$4.4 BILLION Galveston/Bolivar beaches and dunes renourishments

$80 MILLION South Padre Beach nourishment and sediment management

$19 BILLION Bolivar Roads Gate System

Bay Defense System

22%

$4.2 BILLION Galveston Ring Barrier System and sea wall improvements

Ecological Restoration

$1.9 BILLION Clear Lake Gate System and Pump Station

$1.1 BILLION Dickinson Gate System and Pump Station

$400 MILLION Nonstructural measures

$3.1 BILLION Ecosystem Restoration

$140 MILLION Surge mitigation

include the Dickinson and Clear Lake gate systems and pump stations. “The Coastal Texas Program is a series of dune and beach renourish- ment, gates, levees [and] pumps. … It’s a multiple-line-of-defense, multiple-component system that works together,” Sunstrum said. The various projects can be con- structed sequentially as funding becomes available: Some sections of the program could take only a few years to nish, while others might only be completed after over a decade of construction, said Carlos Gomez, ACE deputy public aairs chief. The timeline for the program is expected to take about 15-20 years, and initial steps such as construction contract bidding and nal design could be taken in 2023 now that the NDAA is passed, Braden said. “The scale is unprecedented,” Braden said. “It’s a massive compre- hensive regional mitigation strategy to address catastrophic storm surge.” Paying for the barrier The Gulf Coast Protection District was founded in 2021 by the 87th Texas Legislature for the purpose of acting as the nonfederal sponsor of the Coastal Texas Program. The GCPD covers ve counties by the Gulf

The ve counties that make up the Gulf Coast Protection District are Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Jeerson and Orange counties. The coastal barrier project aims to protect these counties from storm surge. COUNTIES TO DEFEND

ORANGE COUNTY

HARRIS COUNTY

CHAMBERS COUNTY

JEFFERSON COUNTY

GALVESTON COUNTY

GULF OF MEXICO

SOURCES: GULF COAST PROTECTION DISTRICT, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERSCOMMUNITY IMPACT

History of the coastal barrier The Coastal Texas Program con- sists of more than 15 projects out- lined by a six-year study led by the Army Corps of Engineers. The program features a mixture of projects to reect and absorb storm surge as a collective part of a coastal barrier, said Michael Braden, ACE Gal- veston District mega projects division chief. Projects protecting interior land

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U.S. Congress in December for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the sec- ond coming from the scal year 2023-24 President’s Budget in February. “If they get the remaining funding that’s needed, they’ll keep on sched- ule. If the project isn’t funded, then the project will start to slow down,” Jenkins said.

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