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Packery Channel repair costs climb by $2.6M due to additional erosion

The new cost to brace the waterway properly is estimated at $15M. That will go toward fixing parking lots, jetties, channel banks and sidewalks.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Packery Channel repair costs have gone up drastically after work crews found that the waterway's banks are suffering additional erosion.

Initially, the cost for repairs was estimated at $12.4 million, but now the cost has gone up by $2.6 million, according to city of Corpus Christi Assistant Director of Engineering Services Brett Van Hazel.

Crews have been working to fortify the channel by adding boulders to the channel banks.

"They are moving some of the matting in other areas," he said. "They are keeping it, but in general, they're just placing the larger rock on top of the block matting to provide some of that erosion control along the channel."

Other improvements include:

  • repair to damaged sidewalks and bollards;
  • renovation to sections of the north side parking lot
  • resetting some of the jetty's large rocks, which have been jostled out of place by gulf waves. 

The block matting that originally lined the shoreline recently was torn up by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and then again when Hanna hit in 2020. 

Van Hazel said that though boulders are also now being brought in, block matting also is common practice.

"It's an acceptable method, but, like you mentioned, (when) Hurricane Harvey hit, (it) caused substantial damage to areas along the channel," he said. 

Officials told 3NEWS that 35,000 tons of rock have already been brought in. By the middle of the summer, city officials expect to have put down over 100,000 tons of rock.
The project is scheduled to be finished by June.

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