The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, awarded a contract worth around $150,000 to IEA Inc., a small business, to install RADAR reflectors along the outer one mile of the Sabine Neches Waterway (SNWW) southern rock jetty in Jefferson County, Texas.
Jetties, also known as stone breakwaters, minimize wave action along the shoreline and prevent sediment from filling the entrances to ship channels along the Texas coast, reducing dredging maintenance cycles.
“ The jetty has been settling (subsiding) since its original construction between the 1880s and 1930s, ” said Christopher Frabotta, chief of the Navigation Branch for the USACE Galveston District . “Portions of the south jetty are currently submerged underwater during high tide events and subsequently not visible to marine RADAR equipment during high tide.”
According to Frabotta, the district coordinated the RADAR reflector installation contract with representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard (Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur), the Sabine Pilots Association and the Sabine-Neches Navigation District.
“Installation of the RADAR reflectors will significantly enhance marine safety in the Sabine-Neches inlet area by making the outer one mile of the South Jetty visible by marine RADAR equipment during all tide cycles,” said Frabotta.
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Press Release, June 20, 2014