The City of Galveston experienced significant and widespread damage to much of its existing infrastructure as a result of Hurricane Ike, which greatly impacted the City’s ability to provide basic water and sewer service to its residents. In response to this, LAN performed engineering design services for 15,200 LF of 20-inch waterline and all associated appurtenances to maintain water supply to Pelican Island.

The waterline route follows Seawolf Parkway on Pelican Island, and crosses under Galveston Bay from the Texas A&M University at Galveston Campus to the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital (UTMB). Installation of the water distribution main between Pelican Island and UTMB will ensure continuous operation and uninterrupted water and fire protection service for the UTMB facility, which is critical to the function of the island during and immediately following a hurricane event.

Many of the critical design and planning issues of this project concentrated 3,600 LF of pipe installation under the Galveston Ship Channel via Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD). The final HDD bore path alignment design was a compound curve with both vertical and horizontal curves, crossing underneath existing commercial marine facilities and the Galveston Ship channel with depths up to 120 feet. The project also included minimizing impacts to major local roadways, a tie-in to UTMB Elevated Storage Tank, planning for mitigation of potentially contaminated soils, extensive as-built and historical records review, and permitting and coordination with the US Army Corps of Engineers.