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Deeper, wider Cedar Bayou in the works

November 27, 2018

An 11-year wait is over to secure funding to widen and deepen the Cedar Bayou Channel after the White House approved the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget.

The Cedar Bayou Navigation District, who has been seeking federal funding since 2007 to normalize an 8-mile stretch of the existing channel from mile marker 3 to the upper end at Highway 146, finally got funding. And the project was just one of two new startup projects to be included in the Corps budget. 

“We are thrilled with the fact that we are finally able to move forward with construction on this important project,” Tim Tyler, Cedar Bayou Navigation District chair, said. 

According to the Cedar Bayou Navigation District, the channel will be improved to a depth of 10 feet and a width of 100 feet. 

“The project has an approved feasibility report that confirms a positive benefit to cost ratio for the federal government and will also achieve significant environmental improvements on the channel,” Tyler said. “The bayou is a federal waterway which forms the political boundary between Harris County on the west and Chambers County on the east.”

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the project will start with the construction of railroad fenders at two sites that will cost about $9.6 million. 

In total, the project is estimated to take 18 months to complete and will cost about $53 million. And the Cedar Bayou Navigation District hopes the project will start in the first half of 2019. 

“The Corp and the Office of Management and Budget took a very good look at our project and determined that was extremely important for our community and further, for the nation,” Tyler said. “We feed into the Houston Ship Channel and that’s the busiest barge channel in the United States. They took a very careful look at it and said of the projects that are ready for a new start, this one looks very good.” 

This expansion project for Cedar Bayou is not the only improvements it has or will receive, as the Harris County Flood Control District launched the first phase of a multi-million-dollar maintenance project to selectively clear trees, remove vegetative debris and improve stormwater flow along the bayou. 

 The $500,000 phase one of the project includes nearly 8 miles of Cedar Bayou and is being funded through the Flood Control District’s annual operations and maintenance budget. 

A 14.5-mile second phase of the selective clearing project, from near the Liberty/Chambers county line to the Huffman/Eastgate area, will follow in 2019 and is estimated to cost about $1 million, for a total project cost of $1.5 million. 

 

By Christopher James, Baytown Sun
http://baytownsun.com/news/article_17f3e500-f1ce-11e8-acc9-db8516aa18c5.html