Posted on February 26, 2025
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG) celebrates its 145th birthday today.
Since its establishment in 1880, SWG 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.
Here are some of the ways SWG maintains ready, responsive, and relevant:
Dredging & Navigation
Arguably one of the district’s biggest missions is keeping waterways open and maintaining harbors safe for navigation. SWG 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, SWG reallocates the material whenever possible via its Beneficial Use of Dredge Material (BUDM) program.
Flood Risk Management
SWG’s area of responsibility consists of the Texas coast from Louisiana to Mexico, spanning roughly 50,000 square miles. This area is no stranger to the dangers of coastal storms and periodic flooding.
Under Section 22 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1974, SWG provides the state of Texas, its local governments and municipalities, other non-federal entities, and eligible Native American Indian tribes assistance with preparing plans for water resources. Over the years, SWG has conducted studies for dam safety, flood damage reduction, and coastal zone protection. These include studies which have gone on to become full-fledged projects, such as the Coastal Texas Project and the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Program.
SWG has also provided advance measures in preparation for predicted flooding throughout the various counties along the Texas coast, usually by way of strengthening flood control structures and building temporary levees.
Emergency Operations and Assistance
In the event of natural or man-made disasters, SWG stays prepared and ready to respond to declared emergencies. Whether responding to hurricanes, major flooding, or even state-spanning power outages, USACE’s biggest priorities remain sustaining lives with critical commodities, temporary power, and leading the charge to restore critical infrastructure.
In fact, the Galveston District was most recently part of a temporary emergency power task force activated to assess critical public facilities and ensure generators were distributed to where they were needed following the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. SWG also provided hydrographic survey teams to assess the safety of federal navigation channels affected by Beryl.
In the past, SWG has also responded to the aftermath and damage caused by major storms, to include the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Ida.
Through ‘Operation Blue Roof,’ the Galveston District has been able to provide homeowners in disaster areas with fiber-reinforced sheeting to cover their damaged roofs until permanent repairs can be made.
Environmental Conservation and Management
Environmental conservation and natural resource management are also key components of the Galveston District’s mission. These are exemplified in SWG’s Wallisville Lake Project. The project serves a variety of purposes, including: fish and wildlife preservation; salinity control via saltwater barriers; fresh water supply for the Houston area; and navigation for commercial and recreational boating.
USACE natural resource specialists at Wallisville—a.k.a. park rangers—also do educational programs for schools, civic groups, and other organizations on a variety of topics, such as water safety, life jacket usage, boating safety, and general information about the Wallisville Lake Project.
The project is also the site of SWG’s annual Lone Star Warriors Outdoors Gator Hunt, where park rangers escort wounded veterans on a weekend hunt throughout the grounds as part of their efforts to control local gator populations.
The Seawall
Despite all these things the Galveston District does, there is one accomplishment that put Galveston on the map, quite literally: the Galveston Seawall.
The seawall was USACE’s response to the “Great Storm of 1900”—the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history—which left about 8,000 dead, destroyed roughly 4,000 homes, and caused an estimated $25 million in property damage.
Once plans were approved, SWG got to work on constructing the seawall in September 1902. Though the initial segment was finished on July 29, 1904, the seawall would be extended several times up through 1963, extending to more than 10 miles long.
Running alongside Texas Farm to Market (FM) Road 3005—or Seawall Boulevard—the Galveston Seawall now serves as a popular attraction and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Coastal Legacy
“Over the years, the mission evolved, but your spirit of resilience and collaboration with the communities under our charge has never faltered,” said Col. Rhett Blackmon, SWG’s district commander, during a recent address to the district workforce.
In his address, the district commander congratulated his “Champions of the Coast” on another year of extending their legacy of protecting coastal Texas and its people.
“To all who have ever served in the Galveston District, my heartfelt thanks! Your legacy of service to coastal Texas continues to shine through the ‘Champions’ of today.”
For more news and information, follow us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict, Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.
Staff Sgt. Alvaro Alzate, with the 249th Engineering Battalion, inspects the electrical components on an industrial oven in the Bayside Community Center. The 249th Pre-Installation, Inspections Teams are currently assessing the power and generator capabilities in local government facilities in Galveston County for their use as emergency centers for FEMA in the event of a natural disaster. The mission of the 249th Engineer Battalion Prime Power is to, on order, deploy worldwide to provide prime electrical power and electrical systems expertise in support of military operations and the National Response Framework.
A group from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG) take a tour of the Padre Island, a “suction hopper dredger” working in the Galveston Channel, Aug. 2, 2023. Hopper dredges are self-propelled, self-loading ships designed to excavate and load seabed material into a self-contained hopper, through trailing drag arms and pumps for transport to a disposal site. SWG contracts dredges like the Padre Island to maintain more than 1,000 miles of channel and 28 ports, which handle an estimated 400 million tons of cargo annually.
Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District’s (SWG) Emergency Management Office meet with their counterparts of the Texas Department of Emergency Management, July 17, 2024. USACE set up a temporary emergency power task force in response team following the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl. The task force assessed critical public facilities that needed generators following the hurricane. Beryl, a category 1 hurricane, flooded many parts of southeast Texas and left more than 2.2 million homes and business in the in the greater Houston area without electricity.
A vintage postcard of the Galveston Sea Wall shows two men standing on rip rap, which is rock or other material used to protect shoreline structures against scour and water, wave, or ice erosion.
A small concrete mixer moved along railroad tracks to pour concrete into the base for the east end of the Galveston Seawall extension, circa 1920.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG) Commander Col. Rhett A. Blackmon and SWG Deputy District Engineer for Programs and Project Management, Mr. Byron D. Williams, attend the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) ribbon cutting for the Mud Gully (Beamer Ditch) Channel Conveyance Improvements project in Houston, Texas, December 13, 2024. The project was funded and constructed as part of the Clear Creek Federal Flood Risk Management Project (Clear Creek Federal Project), which is a USACE partnership project with the Harris County Flood Control District. SWG has also provided advance measures in preparation for predicted flooding throughout the various counties along the Texas coast, usually by way of strengthening flood control structures and building temporary levees.
Obed Contreras-Sosa, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District (SWG) adds another crab trap to the stack on the shore of Old River, near Wallisville, Texas, February 22, 2024. Environmental conservation and natural resource management are key components of the Galveston District’s mission. These are exemplified in SWG’s Wallisville Lake Project. The project serves a variety of purposes, including: fish and wildlife preservation; salinity control via saltwater barriers; fresh water supply for the Houston area; and navigation for commercial and recreational boating.
