Dr. Kelly Burks-Copes on the USACE Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Project

October 4, 2020

Get caught up on this monumental USACE coastal project

Dr. Kelly Burks-Copes is the Project Manager for the largest, most expensive coastal protection project ever undertaken by the US Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District.  A 28-year coastal pro with the Corps, Kelly and her team of 120 engineers, planners, geologists, and scientists, have bee charged with protecting Galveston and more importantly the city and port of Houston from the next big hurricane.  That'll keep you up at night!


The Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration project is expected to be a $32 billion effort and is likely to involve bates across the two-mile wide Galveston Ship Channel entrance, 160,000 acres of habitats restoration (marches, oyster reefs, beach and dunes, and a flood protection ring of some sort abided Galveston Bay system.  Let's just say there is a lot to talk about.

Show Transcription
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Peter Ravella & Tyler Buckingham

Peter and Tyler joined forces in 2015 and from the first meeting began discussing a project that would become Coastal News Today and the American Shoreline Podcast Network. At the time, Peter and Tyler were coastal consultants for Pete’s firm, PAR Consulting, LLC. In that role, they worked with coastal communities in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina, engaged in grant writing, coastal project development, shoreline erosion and land use planning, permitting, and financial planning for communities undertaking big beach restoration projects. Between and among their consulting tasks, they kept talking and kept building the idea of CNT & ASPN. In almost every arena they worked, public engagement played a central role. They spent thousands of hours talking with coastal stakeholders, like business owners, hotel operators, condo managers, watermen, property owners, enviros, surfers, and fishermen. They dived deep into the value, meaning, and responsibility for the American shoreline, segment-by-segment. Common threads emerged, themes were revealed, differences uncovered. There was a big conversation going on along the American shoreline! But, no place to have it. That's where CNT and ASPN were born.