City celebrates completion of Packery Channel Restoration Project

Corpus Christi community members celebrated the completion of the Packery Channel Restoration Project on Wednesday, seven years after wave energy and a storm surge from Hurricane Harvey caused major damage to the inlet’s shoreline protection system along the channel banks between the State Highway 361 bridge and the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials from the City of Corpus Christi gathered with local, state and federal representatives to celebrate long-awaited repairs to the waterway to make it better equipped to weather coastal storms.

“This project is a true testament to our city’s collective determination to enhance our community’s infrastructure, ensuring that our citizen’s safety, well-being, and prosperity are secured now and in the future,” said Mayor Paulette Guajardo. “Their partnership was a crucial aspect of our city’s strategic approach to recovery, especially following the challenges posed by Hurricane Harvey,” she said.

“We extend our deepest thanks to FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) for their vital financial support, which was really pivotal in bringing this comprehensive restoration and renourishment project to fruition,” she said. “The channel not only provides more regional navigation, but it is an important project for water exchange, habitat enhancement in the Bay, the Gulf, and the island canal system.”

The project also includes a dredging and beach renourishment initiative, in which 1 million cubic yards of accumulated sand was transported to the Michael J. Ellis Beach and Seawall near Whitecap Beach to create additional recreational space on North Padre Island.

The channel has taken more than two years to complete.

A repair project was originally bid in 2019, with HDR Engineering providing field investigations and reviews of bathymetric surveys to develop a conceptual scope and cost estimates to restore the channel and mitigate future damages.

In October of 2021, the City awarded a $12.3 million contract to Callan Marine, Ltd., to begin making repairs to the channel’s shoreline protection, which included demolition, removal and replacement of damaged articulating block mat revetment, construction of a drainage swale lined with concrete block mats, riprap toe protection, resetting of armor stone blocks along the two jetties, a new concrete walkway, 18,000 square feet of sidewalk, new bollards and cable barriers, storm drains, aluminum handrails and work on other damaged structures.

The announcement came shortly after the City received an award letter from FEMA stating that it would cover $13.5 million—or 90%—of the total $15 million cost of repairs, leaving the city a 10% local share of $1.5 million to be backed through revenue generated by covered by a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) collected and reinvested on NPI.

However, construction was delayed until January 2022 as FEMA tried to determine whether the structure qualified as a public facility that was eligible for grant funding. This resuted in an ongoing negotiation with the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which completed the dredging of the channel and jetties in 2006.

City Manager Peter Zanoni lauded City staff for working diligently with federal and state elected officials and recognized FEMA and USACE in striving to complete the project, elaborating on the effort that went into delivering the stone quarry by barge and truck and the sand to Whitecap Beach to widen it to allow vehicle traffic.

“Completing restoration of the channel, as the mayor said, represents a significant economic milestone for our community and also underscores commitment to community and enhancing island’s resiliency, stewardship, and city’s overall development,” he said. “The project is a testament to what we can achieve through collaboration, innovative thinking, and shared commitment of Corpus Christi’s future."

Multiple members of congress attended the ceremony to express their enthusiasm for the community’s support of the project, including District 4 City Councilmember Dan Suckley, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud and State Senator Morgan LaMantia.

“The scope of the restoration was comprehensive, including bank stabilization, structural enhancement improvements to water quality and flow,” Suckley said. “These improvements were aimed at elevating the channel’s functionality and durability for future generations. The projects alignment with the City’s environmental objectives showcase the broader commitment to sustainable urban development andnatural resource conservation in the Coastal Bend and on Padre Island.”

Cruz said his office spent thousands of hours working with the mayor, city council, county judge, Cloud and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to secure federal resources.

“We had a completely unified team at the federal level, at the state level, and at the county level, and everyone worked hand in hand,” he said.

Built in 2006 to provide a conduit between Corpus Christi Bay and the Gulf Coast, Packery Channel is a man-made tidal inlet dividing North Padre Island from Mustang Island. Nueces County led the building of the channel in 1999, when it was authorized through the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) and called the Storm Damage Reduction and Environmental Restoration Project. The conduit was also designed to provide freshwater flow to the hypersaline coastal Laguna Madre and serve as recreational area for small boats and fishing.

Since then, it has been through multiple dredging and restoration projects, historically in response to storms, including Hurricane Emily in 2005.

The importance of channel restoration in supporting tidal exchanges has revolved around the idea of returning the channel to its natural tidal flow, noted Jeff Edmonds, the city director of Engineering Services.

“Historically, this was a wet channel that permitted navigation, but after the Port Aransas ship channel was constructed, silt cut off that flow,” he said. “The restoration project was about restoring the water exchange between the Bay and the Gulf that existed before.”

More: Work to start on Packery Channel restoration

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: City celebrates completion of Packery Channel Restoration Project