American engineer Jacobs and Canadian consultant Stantec have been chosen by the US Army Corps of Engineers to design a $1.9bn levee system in Texas.
The eight-year Orange County Coastal Storm Risk Management project will build 43km of flood defences from Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay. They are intended to improve the area’s resistance to natural disasters, rising seas and land subsidence.
The area has been repeatedly hit by extreme weather conditions in the last decade, including Hurricane Harvey.
Pankaj Duggal, Jacobs’ senior vice president of federal and environmental solutions, said: "Essentially, we are creating a spine that will help protect the Texas coast, providing a solution that not only benefits this area long-term, but the millions of people and businesses in this region that are most impacted by weather."
John Montgomery, Stantec’s leader of water resources, said: "The economics of flood protection are changing, and proactive measures are critical to a community’s social and economic resilience strategy. For each dollar spent on resilient building and construction, six dollars are saved in recovery costs.
Jacobs and Stantec will work with 20 small local business that will account for 40% of the design budget.
Construction due to begin in 2022 and complete in 2026.
Image: A map of the works (Jacobs)
