HOUSTON (AP) – Rice University researchers are raising concerns about the Army Corps of Engineers and the Texas General Land Office’s $31 billion proposal to protect the Houston-Galveston region from devastating storm surge with levees and sea gates.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Rice professors plan to raise questions about the proposed coastal protection project known as the “Ike Dike” during the public comment period. The project is being studied before the agencies send the proposal to Congress to consider funding.
Plans for the complex 70-mile system running from High Island to the San Luis Pass are still at least a decade away from being finished.
Rice professor Jim Blackburn says the Corps’ initial study was incomplete and didn’t account for more powerful storms that’ve swept through the Gulf Coast and the Caribbean in recent years.
—
Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com
(Copyright 2018, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
