Project

Current Situation

The Galveston Bay is a large estuary located in the Gulf of Mexico, at the east coast of the United States of America. This bay is not only for economic importance of the near lying city Houston, but for the whole country. Several large refineries and the second largest port In the United States are located near the bay. It is therefore necessary to prevent the areas from flooding.
At Galveston Island there is already a seawall, but on Bolivar Peninsula there is only a small beach with a relative low dune row included. Behind the dune are a houses located, which are connected with the main road of the peninsula, Texas 87. The estimated inhabitants on the peninsula is around 4000. The Bolivar Peninsula should be resistant to current average conditions, because the peninsula is elevated around 10 feet (3 meters). However, storm surges can flood the area, like in 2008. The peninsula should be able to resist a 1 in 10.000 year storm.

Ike

Devestation to the Bolivar Peninsula after Ike came along

In September 2008, hurricane Ike made landfall at the east coast of Texas, ruinating Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula. The storm consisted of 200 km/h winds in the hurricanes eye and surges up to six meters high. More landward are Texas city and the port of Houston located, which is the second largest port of the United States. Ike caused $25 Billion in damages and made 1500 people homeless. Currently there is a 17 feet (5.2 meters) high sea wall at the coast of Galveston Island and a 27 kilometer long network of levees protects Texas city. This was just enough to protect Texas city and the port of Houston because the surges almost overtopped the dikes and if Ike made landfall at the Bolivar Peninsula inlet there would have been an increased amount of destruction. There is a threat that a future storm will cause a lot more damage and therefore a solution has to be conceived.

Our Project

To protect the cities around Galveston Bay from future storms, the Texas A&M University in Galveston proposed the construction of the “Ike Dike”. This project would include strengthening the current Galveston seawall, adding revetments at the Bolivar Peninsula, raising coastal highways and constructing sea gates and a barrier at the San Luis pass and Bolivar Roads. Our multidisciplinary project group has to make an integrated design for the Ike Dike risk reduction strategy at the Bolivar roads Pensinsula. This will be done by investigating three aspects:

• Conceptual design of the coastal levee on the peninsula. Alternatives such as dunes, coastal dike or levee, or levee in dune, will be investigated. Integration of these designs in the landscape is important and will have to be investigated.
• Organization, management and funding of the proposed interventions in the local setting and communities. Stakeholders and potential funding and organization arrangements will be investigated. As part of this task also a more technical elaboration of the execution and planning of the proposed interventions can be made.
• Emergency management, evacuation and transportation planning and strategies for the peninsula. How can an optimal evacuation for the peninsula be ensured and is it necessary to evacuate all residents?