Mouth of the San Bernard - opening work to begin!!

 ANGLETON — Applause greeted the vote Tuesday that could signal a step forward in flood mitigation in western Brazoria County as Commissioners’ Court unanimously approved awarding a dredging contract for reopening of the mouth of the San Bernard River. “We’re going to have a dredge out there hopefully sometime in July, isn’t that right, Matt?” Precinct 1 Commissioner Dude Payne said to County Engineer Matt Hanks. “I know Matt’s met with Rigid Constructors — we were able to save some money. We’ve got a lot of folks from Friends of the River (in the audience). Commissioner (David) Linder and I, the last time we were at their annual meeting, we considered wearing bags over our heads because we’ve been going the past four years now and promising this was going to happen. I know there were some people who doubted it was going to happen. 

I was beginning to doubt myself that it would ever happen.”. . . Payne doesn’t know how many homes could’ve been saved from Hurricane Harvey’s flood- waters if the mouth were open, but a camera on Judge Jack Brown’s property showed those waters drop 6 feet after the storm blew open the entrance to the river. Port Freeport signed on to perform routine dredge maintenance at the site for the next 25 years, plus another $5 million or $6 million left over from the RESTORE Act allocation could be used for that dredging work, officials said. “Hopefully the next maintenance dredge will be on RESTORE Act funds,” Payne said. “The county has paid for the engineering to get this done, and also the other project that we have on the Quintana pier, but the majority of this is being (paid for) with RESTORE Act funds.” The county received six bids for the dredge work, with Rigid of Lafayette, Louisiana, coming in at the lowest at just under $3.49 million. . . . The county is supposed to save about $1 million that would’ve otherwise been part of the cost, Linder said at a West Brazoria Drainage District 11 meeting Monday, because Rigid is already mobilized for a different, nearby project later in the year. Commissioners also awarded the contract for construction engineering and inspection services for the Lower San Bernard River ecosystem restoration project to HDR of Houston. The cost is pegged at about $553,210, which will also be paid through RESTORE Act money