Southwestern Division Executes Hurricane Harvey Supplemental Program [Building Strong® 2020-2021]

By U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - January 21, 2021

On March 24, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District switched the flow of water at Addicks Dam to new outlet control structures to improve and modernize Addicks and Barker dams. Public safety is the district’s top priority, and it continues to operate and improve its critical structures, which are especially vital during this time to maintain economic capacity. (Courtesy photo)

By JORDYN McCULLEY and MARY GRUNERT, Southwestern Division

“If I or SWD, in June 2020, spoke to the division staff of the work accomplished under SWD’s Hurricane Harvey Supplemental Program.

“You have done tremendous things to provide immediate risk reduction and recovery following Hurricane Harvey,” he said. “We must remain aggressive, meet our commitments, and build resiliency for years to come.”

The $5.2 billion Supplemental Program was established after Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The program provides critical flood risk resiliency to the region by repairing damage from 2017 hurricanes and building additional flood risk reduction structures. The program comprises 40 projects across four states.

These projects attack the problem of coastal resilience from three different angles: 1) protecting people from the devastating effects of major storms and enabling them to recover quickly when storms strike; 2) restoring and preserving environmental features that, along with man-made structures, help protect the coast from storm damage; and 3) repairing and improving key infrastructure to prevent major economic setback following future coastal storms.

In 2018, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Southwestern Division established the $5.2 billion Hurricane Harvey Supplemental Program, funded by the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act, to reduce the risk of flooding effects from severe storms. The program comprises 40 projects across three states – Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas – and will provide critical, enhanced flood risk reduction measures to the region. All work in the program is expected to be complete by 2027. (SWO Map)

While there are projects in the Fort Worth, Little Rock, and Tulsa districts, the majority of the projects within the program are found in SWD’s Galveston District, which is commanded by Col. Timothy Vail.

Vail was raised in Texas and spent many summers along the Texas coast. His love for his home state is comparable to his passion to find long-term solutions for coastal risk.

“I’ve lived through dozens of storms and witnessed the struggles of Texans to recover, but Harvey was something different,” he said.

“We’ve done a lot of studying and planning during the last three years – bringing together some of the brightest minds from our district, the Corps, and the entire world to attack the problem. We are now at an inflection point where those studies and plans can be turned into projects and solutions.”

Through the Supplemental Program, SWD is attacking the problem across four portfolios: flood control and coastal emergencies (FCCE); construction; operation and maintenance (O&M); and investigations.

Projects within the FCCE portfolio repair critical dams and levees damaged following Hurricane Harvey. These repairs reduce future flood risk. The FCCE portfolio contains eight projects, all within the Galveston District, with an approximate cost of $51.8 million.

The construction portfolio concentrates on flood risk reduction and coastal storm projects. The construction portfolio contains 12 projects, within the Fort Worth and Galveston districts, with an approximate cost of $4.8 billion.

The O&M portfolio, like FCCE, focuses on repairs needed to already existing structures or features. O&M is the biggest portfolio in the Supplemental Program. Ninety-five percent of the projects within FCCE and O&M are, or will be, under construction by the end of 2020. The O&M portfolio contains projects within the Galveston, Little Rock, and Tulsa districts. The portfolio has an approximate cost of $53.5 million.

The investigations portfolio supports studies designed to develop comprehensive solutions for flood risk management, both inland and along the coast. The investigations portfolio, with an approximate cost of $20.6 million, has six projects within the Fort Worth, Galveston, and Tulsa districts.

“This is a massive program with massive benefits to the region,” said Jon Loxley, program manager for the Supplemental Program. “The program not only addresses the short-term repairs needed; it looks at comprehensive solutions that will provide risk reduction for generations to come.”

Long-term benefits are not just a result of the projects within the program, but also derive from the partnerships that are formed between USACE and state, local, and regional government, industry, and private organizations to make the projects possible.

“We could not do our job without our partners and sponsors,” Beck said. “They are the heartbeat of the community.”

More than 45 partners or project sponsors are working alongside SWD to build resiliency and risk reduction measures in communities across the region.

“It will take a lot of work and coordination with the public and with many different government and private organizations, but we have a comprehensive plan to improve coastal resilience, and I’m confident that over the next decade, our approach will protect the people, preserve the environment, and enable continued economic growth along America’s energy coast,” said Vail.

This article appears in the 2020-2021 edition of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Building Strong®, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces

SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Southwestern Division (SWD) oversees hundreds of water resources development and military design and construction projects in all or parts of seven states: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Louisiana.

• Covers 2.3 million acres of public land and water, with an annual program in excess of $2 billion.

• Includes three of the nation’s Top 10 ports.

• Maintains more than 1,000 miles of navigation channel, including 28 Texas ports – 10 of which are among the nation’s Top 75.

• Inland navigation mission includes two major waterways, a 423-mile portion of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, and the 442-mile McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS).

• 18 locks and dams contribute to the MKARNS total of $8.5 billion in sales, which include commodities that are shipped on the system as well as sales in support of the navigation, $289 million in taxes, and 55,872 jobs to the national economy.

• Region’s 74 multipurpose reservoirs provide 3.1 trillion gallons annually for municipal and industrial water supply and satisfy the demand for 1.8 million households and 4.5 million people.

• Reservoirs hold about 33.2 million acre-feet of flood storage, or enough to fill 13,900 Dallas Cowboys stadiums.

• Reservoirs have prevented more than $168 billion (as of FY 18)in damages over the life of the projects.

• Second-largest producer of hydropower in USACE; 18 hydropower plants produce enough energy to power 339,135 homes – 10,800 kilowatt-hours – for one year.

• Revenue from the power produced returned $150 million to the U.S. Treasury.

• No. 1 in USACE in both recreation visitation and fees collected, with 54 million visitors at 87 operating projects located in five states, contributing $2.5 billion in visitor spending annually to the regional economy.

• 19,000 jobs created within 30 miles of SWD lakes.

• More than $20 million went to the U.S. Treasury from the division’s recreation fees in FY 2019.

• Military missions include all or parts of five states, serving nine major Army and nine major Air Force installations, covering almost a half-million square miles.

• Constructing 17 military construction projects valued at more than $759 million.