Caplen Beach Restoration Project

Project Description

Caplen Beach, located on Bolivar Peninsula in Galveston County, has a serious shoreline erosion problem that requires immediate attention. Beachfront property is in imminent danger of collapsing onto the public beach easement. A 1985 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study showed that the shoreline was receding at a rate of 5 to 8 feet per year. Because a protective dune system does not exist, an unstable, unvegetated, vertical bluff has developed and wave action continues to undermine this bluff at its toe. Debris from damage to former beach-fronting properties now poses a hazard to anyone using the public beach easement. Immediate action is needed to remove derelict structures from the public beach, to stabilize the bluff, and to prevent beachfront structures from collapsing onto the beach and thereby creating additional, future hazards to beach users. Erosion and scour associated with the passage of Tropical Storm Josephine have resulted in tons of relict concrete and steel debris that had been buried by natural processes over the years to become exposed. Septic tanks, residential foundations, plumbing, and bulkheads from abandoned, and in some cases submerged property, now litter the public beach. It would be unwise and dangerous to bury such debris with sand during a beach nourishment project. With this in mind, the county proposes to use CMP funds to establish a monitoring program for the nourishment project (subtask 1) and to remove hazardous and derelict structures from the beach prior to the nourishment of the beach (subtask 3).