The price for Packery Channel is Rising. In 1996 we were told that Packery Channel could be built for $11,000,000. The price is now up to $30,000,000 for an inlet designed with jetties that are over 1000 feet too short for a successful navigation inlet. An inlet with adequate jetties will probably cost well over $50 million dollars.

Jetties cost about $5000 per foot to build. The cost of the two 1400 foot jetties in the current permit for Packery Channel will cost $14,000,000. Adequate jetties for navigational safety and even a possibility of preventing excessive channel filling will need to be at least 2500 ft. long at a cost over $25,000,000.

The most comparable inlets on the Texas coast are the Fish Pass, Mansfield Pass, and the Colorado River Entrance.

For the past 30 years Mansfield Pass has had annual maintenance dredging of 179,000 cubic yards per year. Latest dredging was $537,000 at just over $3.00 per cuyd. The Port Director told me that he has to send notices out to users one year after dredging to stay on the north side of the jetty channel, because in less than one year the south side fills to dangerous levels. On the photo above, you can clearly see the sand bar feeding into the entrance on the south (lower) side of the pass. The jetties were initially 2300 ft. long. There has been severe erosion of the beach on the north side of the pass and the south jetty has nearly filled with sand. The sand moves from south to north (bottom to top) at this location. Sand moves in the opposite direction at Packery.
The Fish pass mouth filled from 11 ft to 4 feet in 5 months. The bay mouth filled from 8 feet to less than 2 feet in less than one year.

At the Colorado R. entrance, the average annual dredging from 1983 to 1992 averaged 300,000 cubic yards per year. In 1992, the Corps diverted the river so that it now flows into Matagorda Bay and not out through the jetty entrance. Now that the pass is no longer flushed by the river flow, the average annual dredging from 1992 to 1995 has been over 900,000 cubic yards per year at cost of nearly $2,000,000 per year. The most up-to-date navigational chart has the warning that the entrance of this channel is subject to closure. The photo above shows the dredge removing $2 million dollars worth of sand from the entrance.

Average annual dredging maintenance at Brazos Santiago pass entrance channel from 1970 to 1995 was 360,500 cubic yards per year.

Increased dredging in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway just inland of Rollover Pass due to sand flowing in through the manmade pass is between 240,000 and 290,000 cubic yards per year.

Abundant published and unpublished information indicates that the gross alongshore sediment transport at Packery Channel and most other locations along the Texas coast is from 600,000 to 1,000,000 cubic yards per year and probably in excess of 700,000 cubic yards per year. This is 250 dump trucks per day or about one dump truck every six minutes all year long. This is the material available to fill in the entrance of any inlet through the surf zone.

Most successful inlets on the Texas coast have the following characteristics:
Short, relatively straight channel with little resistance to flow.
A large deep bay to provide an adequate basin for tidal exchange.
A river which provides outflow to help sweep sediment out of the pass.
Very long jetties into deep water.
The proposed Packery Channel project has none of these characteristics.

Turner, Collie & Braden in a preliminary report prior to construction of the Fish Pass stated that 1400 ft. jetties are unsafe 31% of the time and 2200 ft. jetties are unsafe 17% of the time. This means that for those times, there will be dangerous breaking waves in the entrance, making the inlet unpassable except for the most experienced captains in appropriate vessels.

Waves break when their height reaches 3/4 of the water depth. The 1500 ft jetties of the present permit will end in about 12 feet of water. If this fills in to 8 feet, then 6 foot waves will break. Five or six hours of 25 knot winds will generate 6 foot waves on this coast. This is a common situation in the afternoon along this part of the Texas coast. This will kill people. Inexperienced boaters will go out in the morning when the wind and seas are low. They will return in the afternoon to find a breaking inlet. If they have sufficient fuel and the ability to navigate at night they can go to Port Aransas and enter a large safe inlet. The other choice is possible suicide in attempting to run a breaking inlet with the channel right next to the jetties. This will be a very dangerous inlet.

Packery Channel will not improve salinity in Laguna Madre. The biggest flood tide that we measured in the Fish Pass which is a more efficient channel in a better location would have only changed the water level in Laguna Madre by 1/16 of an inch. In fact, increased filling of Laguna Madre by sand flowing in through Packery Channel will further reduce Laguna Madre circulation.

For over 100 years, the beaches in the vicinity of Packery Channel have been eroding at 3 to 5 feet per year. Any inlet will cause loss of sand into the bay (Laguna Madre) and sand trapped in fillets at the jetties. This will further accelerate erosion of nearby beaches.

For any chance of success, Packery Channel will have to have jetties at least 2500 feet long. (The N. jetty at Colorado R. Entrance is 2600 feet long and the jetties at Mansfield Pass are 2300 ft. long). For navigation safety the inlet ( and thus the depth of the outer ends of the jetties) needs to be at least 16 feet. This is the project depth for both Mansfield Pass and the Colorado River Entrance. The Colorado R. entrance is highly unsuccessful and Mansfield Pass is marginally successful. The total cost of building an inlet with 2500 ft jetties will probably be $40,000,000 to over $50,000,000. Annual dredging maintenance based on costs at Mansfield, Brazos Santiago and Colorado River Entrance will probably be $500,000 to $1,500,000 per year.

If the annual dredging cost is $1,000,000 per year and 500 Nueces County boats use the inlet, the cost per boat per year will be $2,000 for dredging.

Only developers on the east side of the highway will really benefit. The 20 ft clearance bridge will prevent all sailboats, most large motor vessels and virtually all commercial vessels from using the inlet if they are based on the west side of the bridge. A high clearance bridge like the one across the Intracoastal Waterway next to Snoopy’s might cost as much as the pass itself.

This is a sand starved erosional barrier island. Major coastal engineering structures such as Packery Channel interrupt the powerful longshore sediment transport system. When this natural balance is upset, the result is generally loss of beaches and construction of remedial structure after remedial structure to no avail. This has been well demonstrated in New Jersey, the Delmarva Peninsula, Florida and most of the highly developed coasts of the United States.

The destruction of the beaches on other coasts and other parts of this coast started with a single coastal engineering structure designed to improve something. We cannot stop rising sea level. We cannot control a 250 dump truck per day sand transport system. We cannot stop barrier island migration. But we can destroy our beaches by trying to fix their position. We have a lot of experience at that. We are experts at replacing valuable, beautiful beaches and dunes with ugly, expensive and dangerous concrete, rock and steel coastal engineering structures.

We should learn from past mistakes and not build major coastal engineering structures unless they are absolutely necessary, such as major commercial ports. It is ridiculous to take this risk for an inlet that only the smallest pleasure boats can use in only good weather conditions.


NOTE: The prices quoted above are at 1996 dredging and construction rates. By the time that the pass is completed, the prices will be much higher. The present plans which have been submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers use a dredging rate of $2.00 per cubic yard. This was low at the time it was presented. Expect costs of as much as $5.00 per cubic yard or more.