As the old saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas.
Cars, food, hats, land — you name it.
The same applies to construction. When a new stadium or piece of infrastructure gets
announced here you just know it’s going to take up loads of space and cost huge amounts of cash.
Now, there’s another massive project in the works that follows the same formula,
but this one tackles an issue you might not associate with the Lone Star State.
America’s oil and gas capital is investing billions to protect one of its key regions
against a threat that is becoming more severe thanks to climate change.
That’s right, with extreme weather now increasingly common and one disaster fresh in the
memory, Texas is defending its coastline in the only way it knows how — by going big. Very big.
If you still need convincing that Texas has an
obsession with size then you only need to visit one of its cities.
Austin, Dallas, Houston — they’re all pretty massive, but there’s one city here that was
once bigger than all of them, and there’s a chance you’ve never even heard of it.
This is Galveston, a coastal resort which became the largest city in Texas during the 19th century.
Why? Because it was home to one of America’s major ports,
so a lot of money and trade used to flow right through here.
As the city and local economy began to prosper,
it became clear that a new shipping channel between Galveston and nearby Houston was needed.
That meant a lot of heavy dredging and the construction of two jetties and a dike,
to prevent sediment and silt from entering the channel.
But even when these protective structures were finished in the late 1890s,
Galveston’s position on a long skinny island left it wide open to natural disasters.
And that’s just what happened in 1900 when one of
the worst hurricanes in US history hit the city, killing thousands.
Although no one around here will remember that particular tragedy,
millions won’t have forgotten the one that occurred over a century later.
"The seawalls protecting Galveston Island easily breached by surging waves."
In 2008, Hurricane Ike battered Southeast Texas with winds of over 100mph,
causing dozens of deaths and almost $30BN worth of damage, with Galveston taking the full force.
The highest storm surge in almost 100 years was recorded,
spreading over 15 miles inland, and 34 counties were declared disaster areas.
Once the aftermath had died down, attention turned to how this sort
of catastrophe could be prevented in the future.
Considering the scale of the destruction, it would
have to be something substantial. It’d need to be done Texas style.
So, what is this massive project exactly?
Well, it’s nicknamed the Ike Dike and it’s part of a wider scheme to give hundreds
of miles of Texas coastline much better protection in the event of another disaster.
But it comes at a price — costing as much as $31BN.
Around half of that figure has been set aside for the Dike itself,
which is much more than a simple seawall.
The plan is to build a gigantic series of gates and barriers, as well as manmade
beaches and dunes, stretching across the whole of Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula.
At the centre of it all is the most challenging part
of the project — a storm surge barrier system made up of several huge gates,
which will span the near-two-mile gap at the entrance to Galveston Bay.
A pair of 200-metre navigation gates will be installed across three artificial islands,
leaving channels in between for ships to pass in and out.
Between these new islands and the shorelines, a set of vertical lift gates will also be put in.
Now, most of the time these gates will be left open,
allowing the bay to operate as normal. But in the event of another storm surge,
or hurricane, they will all close and form a giant seal against the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s not too dissimilar to the huge pop-up gates built to protect Venice, and if you’re from
another European country you might think those giant swinging gates look a bit familiar too.
Yes, the team from Texas A&M University that masterminded it were inspired by the
Dutch and their system used to protect Rotterdam.
In fact, the overall plan to build a new coastal
spine for the region is straight out of The Netherlands’ playbook.
As well as the gate system there will be miles of manmade beaches and dunes,
improvements to the existing seawall in Galveston and restoration of damaged ecosystems.
Finally, to protect the city itself a ring barrier will be built.
This will include flood walls,
highway and railroad gates and a new drainage system with pump stations.
That'll allow water to be moved from inside the barrier and back out into the bay.
There’s a lot to it, which is why it’s going to take a long time to actually deliver.
The main gate system alone is expected to take around 18 years to complete.
A lot of work has already gone in. It required a six-year multi-million-dollar
comprehensive study to come up with the plan.
That was carried out by the US Army Corps of Engineers,
in partnership with the Texas General Land Office, which is run by a man called George Bush.
No, not that one. We’re talking George P Bush,
Dubya’s nephew and the current Texas Land Commissioner.
The result of the study all sounds very impressive,
but there are still obstacles to overcome before work can begin.
Ike Dike is just one part of the new Water Resources Development Act,
which is now working its way through the US Government and includes several other projects.
Although approval of the act has been given by Congress,
there are still a few details to be agreed before the legislation is signed off by the President.
The question of funding for the project has still not been fully answered either.
It’s predicted the money will be split in a similar way to other projects of
this type — roughly 65% from federal and the other 35% coming from local budgets.
That would mean the state of Texas coughing up around $10BN.
But that’s not expected to be a major issue because this enormous scheme
will not just protect the people of Galveston and their properties.
There are also hundreds of petrochemical facilities in the Houston-Galveston area,
including some of the largest oil refineries in the whole of the US.
Because it would give added security to an area that’s of critical economic importance,
and it has the backing of Texas politicians, there is confidence that the funds can be raised.
Ike Dike is shaping up to be one of the biggest and most critical of the
many big construction projects that the US is set to embark on.
While you could argue that every scheme being put
forward to improve America’s infrastructure is important,
the need for a scheme like this is obvious when you look at the damage that was done without it.
2008 was yet more proof that even the world’s richest economy is
still vulnerable to the wrath of nature when not properly prepared.
The hope now is that when the next big storm hits, Texas will be ready.
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