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Earlier this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District celebrated its 145th birthday.
Since its establishment in 1880, the Galveston District has played a pivotal role in maintaining channels and improving harbors, laying the foundation that would make Texas a leader in commercial navigation and trade.
Though its mission has grown over nearly a century and a half, the district continues to embody the spirit of resilience that has gotten coastal Texas through some of it most challenging times.
Dredging & Navigation
Arguably one of the district’s biggest missions is keeping waterways open and maintaining harbors safe for navigation. The district maintains more than 1,000 miles of channel and 28 ports, which handle an estimated 400 million tons of cargo annually. That means a lot of dredging.
How much dredging, to be exact? Every year, the Galveston District dredges anywhere between 30 to 40 million cubic yards of sand. All that comes from the harbor and channel dredging of Texas’ biggest ports, including Beaumont, Corpus Christi, Matagorda, and Houston.
This routine dredging maintenance keeps economically vital channels and ports deep and wide enough for the safe movement of ships.
While most of the dredged material is placed in open water or placement areas, the district reallocates the material whenever possible via its Beneficial Use of Dredge Material (BUDM) program.
For more information about the mission and its activities, please visit the Galveston District website .