The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, has awarded an approximately $2,3 million contract to Midwest Construction Company for construction of a 3,000 feet extension of a rock breakwater at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge Beneficial Use Site B near Austwell, Texas.
According to Project Manager Seth Jones, USACE Galveston District Navigation Branch , the beneficial use site will eventually receive dredged material from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, located in Calhoun County, Texas.
“The end goal is to turn Beneficial Use Site B into productive marsh habitat that will hopefully be used by the endangered whooping crane wintering at the refuge ,” said Jones.
The contractor is required to extend the existing rock breakwater an additional 3,000 feet as part of a multi-year project to build the outer perimeter protection prior to construction of the interior marsh cells. The perimeter breakwater and interior marsh cells will be completed under future contracts.
“The construction is one phase of a multiple-year project that will eventually lead to the creation of approximately 500 acres of marsh through the beneficial use of material dredged from the GIWW navigation channel during future maintenance dredging cycles, ” said Jones.
Work is scheduled to begin this May with and is estimated to be completed by the end of September 2016.
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