The Texas General Land Office and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have signed a construction memorandum of understanding intended to speed early implementation of the Coastal Texas Project, Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced Aug. 20.
The agreement lets the two parties coordinate construction-related activities before they execute a formal project partnership agreement, according to the land office’s news release. It also allows work the agency advances in the meantime to count as in-kind credit toward the state’s future federal cost share once that agreement is finalized.
Authorized by the Water Resources Development Act of 2022, the Coastal Texas Project is the nation’s largest coastal storm risk management and ecosystem restoration initiative, the release said. It pairs structural features with natural and nature-based solutions and large-scale restoration measures including marsh creation, breakwaters, oyster reef development, bird rookery island construction, and beach and dune nourishment.
“As someone who spent more than a decade living on the Texas coast, I believe that the Coastal Texas Project is vital to ensuring our communities, wildlife, and habitats remain safe and thriving for generations to come,” Buckingham said in the release. “Continuing our partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is crucial to securing our coast’s resiliency to natural disasters.”
The land office served as the non-federal sponsor for the Coastal Texas Feasibility Study and sponsors components of the authorized project, including coastwide ecosystem restoration measures and the coastal storm risk management project at South Padre Island. Texas has obligated roughly $50 million toward work aligned with that footprint to date, according to the release.
Col. David W. Dake, commander of the Army Corps’ Galveston District, said in the release that the project amounts to more than barriers and restored shorelines. “Through this partnership with the State of Texas, we’re advancing resilient infrastructure that will help protect people, safeguard critical navigation and energy corridors, and support the long-term economic vitality of the region and the nation,” Dake said.
A design agreement and a project partnership agreement will follow to formally establish the long-term construction partnership between the two, the land office said.