RAISING BOLIVAR

Crews working on a $6.16 million road project funded by a federal economic stimulus program will begin raising Bolivar Peninsula’s only highway, which was damaged by Hurricane Ike. Work is scheduled to start today.

A second project, already under way, should help protect the lowest-lying parts of the highway from five-year floods, Bill Babbington, an engineer with the Texas Department of Transportation, said.
Crews will begin installing culverts and pipes on state Highway 87 between the Galveston-Bolivar Ferry and state state Highway 124 with the intent of raising the road from 3 inches to 21/2 feet, Babbington said. Not all of the highway must be elevated.

Crews will not shut down the road but will have flagmen to direct single-lane traffic on the two-lane highway. The project is expected to conclude at year’s end, weather permitting, Babbington said.

State contractors are installing concrete barriers along the lowest-lying stretches of the highway, which extends some 30 miles along the peninsula.

Contractors are burying two concrete, triangular barriers side by side in the sand between the road and the beach.

They will then place a third barrier atop the two, reaching a height of 1 foot above the road, Babbington said.

The lowest section near the state Highway 124 junction is just 41/2 feet above sea level.

“The intent is to prevent some high tides and minor tropical storms from inundating that road,” Babbington said.

“That happens during spring tides, where they get water on Highway 87.”

The barriers won’t be continuously connected, Babbington said.

“It runs from Highway 124 to Rollover Pass in segments,” Babbington said.

“We tried to address the areas that lost most of the beach.”

The state isn’t installing barriers where significant beach remains, Babbington said.

The $513,868 barrier project began June 8 and is expected to be completed in 45 days, weather permitting, Babbington said.

Read full story at Galveston County Daily News

When the next hurricane blows through Galveston County, Entergy Corp. officials believe their new metal utility poles could help restore electricity sooner to residents of the Bolivar Peninsula.

The $15 million project to erect and wire 201 massive poles could be complete by Aug. 28, said Elaine Dearbonne, the company’s capital projects manager for Texas.

The 18 miles of transmission lines would stretch between substations in Chambers and Galveston counties, ending at the Himex substation at High Island.

When Hurricane Ike made landfall Sept. 13, it caused extensive flooding and damaged hundreds of wooden utility poles that littered the landscape along state highways 124 and 87 on the peninsula. Some residents were without power for about two months.

The first line leading to High Island wasn’t charged until Oct. 3, said Larry Daspit, a spokesman for Entergy.

“We’re rebuilding with steel poles to withstand a 140-mph storm,” Dearbonne said. The company adopted the standard close to the coast.

The transmission lines, which rest on poles that are as thick as 5 feet in diameter and stand between 85 to 150 feet high, carry 69,000 volts or more and cannot be used as distribution lines without reducing electrical output. Once the output is reduced at a substation, it is then sent along distribution lines capable of carrying 34,500 volts to transformers that power homes.

If the metal structures withstand the next storm, the company will spend less time erecting new poles. The goal is to reduce the time residents are without power, Dearbonne said.

Every pole was engineered for the soil where contractors are sinking them, some to depths of 20 feet or more, depending on the geology, said Dean Adams, the company’s construction supervisor for Texas and the Southwest.

After the poles are installed, they will be strung, 2 miles at a time, with aluminum-conductor, steel-reinforced lines, said Amy Hensarling, a construction engineer with Entergy.

Galveston County Commissioner Patrick Doyle said most of the peninsula had power restored within two months after Ike’s landfall.

“It will definitely help on the next go-round,” Doyle said. “Even during tropical storms, a lot of times we lose power on High Island.”

Burying the lines would be too pricey, Doyle said.

Once the company completes the transmission-line project, customers should not notice the switch, Adams said.

By Chris Paschenko  The Daily News