Texas Department of Transportation maintenance crews installed a partial section of a storm surge wall on State Highway 361 inAransas Pass Thursday morning as part of the agency's annual hurricane readiness drill.
The exercise took place just west of the Dale Miller Bridge, where TxDOT maintains an 80-foot-wide, 10-foot-tall wall designedto close a gap in the city's levee system during a hurricane-driven storm surge.
Danny Cox, maintenance administrator for TxDOT in Corpus Christi, said the annual drill serves two purposes: keepingexperienced crews sharp and training newer employees.
"We come out here annually to do this drill for TxDOT to freshen and sharpen up our skills, but also to train the new people thatdidn't work here a year ago at TxDOT the last time we did this drill," Cox said.
Cox explained why the wall plays a critical role in protecting Aransas Pass.
"The city of Aransas Pass has a levee system and State Highway 361, which is where we're standing today, opens that leveesystem and if a storm surge is coming from a hurricane, this wall closes that levee system to slow down a storm surge cominginto the city of Aransas Pass via our highway," Cox said.
TxDOT crews previously deployed the wall during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. While storm surge did not reach the area, Cox saidthe installation was still valuable.
"Out of precautionary measures we did install the wall, and it was effective in the way of going through the exercise for us, butthere was no storm surge in this area," Cox said.
In a real emergency, Cox said crews could complete the full wall installation in 2 to 3 hours, though the process is intentionallystaged to allow workers to get ahead of deteriorating weather conditions.
"It actually staggers out over a longer period just so that we're not rushed and we're trying to get out here before the weathergets real bad," Cox said. "We'll get it down to where there's just one lane of traffic so the ferries can continue to evacuate peopleoff of Port Aransas as long as the Coast Guard allows."
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