HOUSTON SHIP CHANNEL BENEFICIAL USE PROJECT: LESSONS LEARNED IN BUILDING THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF HABITAT WITH DREDGE MATERIAL

摘要

The Houston-Galveston Navigation Channels, Texas (HGNC) project is the largest collection of beneficial uses sites under one project scope in Galveston Bay, Texas as well as one of the largest in the U.S. and world. But how does a project with such an enormous scope get constructed and what lessons have been learned in the nearly 10 years since construction was authorized by the U.S. Congress?rnThe genesis for the project came from the need to deepen and widen the existing channels to allow larger vessels to call on the existing ports in the area. The channel with the most vessel usage of the two authorized for construction, the Houston Ship Channel, allows for continued economic growth in the Port of Houston. However, at the time construction was to begin, placement of the material dredged to widen and deepen the Houston Ship Channel was to be placed in existing underwater placement areas along the channel. This practice of placing dredged material in the open bay was no longer acceptable to local environmental groups. As a result of this project, a team of eight agencies was brought together to develop a plan to beneficially use dredge material to solve placement area capacity problems, develop a scope of work to address these concerns and all agree on the path forward for the project.rnThe project team has also gained experience on how to fill dredge material placement sites with the dredge material to meet not only the capacity needs to support the maintenance dredging for the channel, but also how to meet the future planting and habitat needs of a marsh or upland habitat area. Additionally, the team will share their current efforts on how they are managing the filling process of the sites to potentially minimize future channel construction expenses needed to gain circulation in the marsh cells.