Galveston seawall repair will cost $10 million

Damage from Hurricane Ike has prompted a multimillion-dollar effort to shore up the city's famed 17-foot-high seawall before next hurricane season. Ike, which came ashore near Galveston on Sept. 13, pounded the seawall with waves and debris for at least 12 hours, damaging pavement, causing sinkholes along the sidewalk on top of the wall and swallowing up the protective beach in front of it. Officials are replenishing the beach along a 51-block stretch with more than 400,000 cubic yards of sand from nearby land. The seawall maintained its structural integrity but will require the first major repair job in its 105-year history, said Harrison Sutcliffe, chief of the engineering branch of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Galveston office. The storm left little sand to shield the seawall's base, which could corrode or wash away its underpinnings, the Houston Chronicle reported. "If left unrepaired the next storm could jeopardize the wall," Sutcliffe said. He said the repairs will cost at least $10 million. The beach restoration project, being done by the Texas General Land Office, will cost an additional $10 million. "We wouldn't be spending millions of dollars if we weren't really concerned about the wall," said Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who is responsible for the state's coastline. "We want it to be there another 100 years." Galveston built the seawall and raised the city behind it after the Great Storm of 1900. As designed, the concrete wall sits atop pine pilings driven 40 to 50 feet into the sand. Blocks of granite protect it from being undermined. Since then, the seawall has protected homes and businesses from a dozen hurricanes.