TEXAS CITY — It’s eerily quiet these days along the Texas City Dike. Before Hurricane Ike, even on the cold and rainy days, the 5-mile-long dike that reaches out into Galveston Bay would be populated by fishermen, sailors and bird watchers.
Four months after Ike wrecked the dike, though, about the only thing found are the birds, with no one there to watch them. It may be more than a year before those birds have company, before the boat ramps are busy or before fishermen will line the rocky shores and cast their lines at the place dubbed “the world’s largest man-made fishing pier.”
“I know people want it back really bad,” Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle said. “I just don’t think we will see the dike like it once was, at least for a year. If ever.”
Hurricane Ike not only wiped out the bait camps, shrimp boat docks and fishing piers along the dike, the storm destroyed boat ramps, the road and undermined the base of the structure. In some places, it looks as if a bomb was detonated under the road.
Today Doyle will meet with members of his staff to explore what’s next for the dike. The biggest obstacle, though, is money.
It’s estimated it will take $6.5 million to repair what damage Ike caused to the dike, and that’s just to get the structure and road back to working order. That’s in addition to the $2 million already spent to clear off debris on the dike as well as in the waters around it.
While FEMA has initially agreed to pick up about 75 percent of the repair work, Doyle said that leaves about $1.62 million the city and county will have to come up with.
“(County Judge Jim Yarbrough) has said there could be about $1.5 million from the road bonds, but that leaves another $125,000 for the city to pay,” Doyle said.
It’s a matter of priorities right now.
“When you consider the condition of Bolivar, San Leon and the other areas where there is total devastation, is the dike where the focus needs to be right now? Not really,” Doyle said.
After all, when it was built in the 1930s, the dike was intended to be a barrier to protect the Port of Texas City and industrial complexes from a storm surge and reduce sediment build up in the Texas City ship channel. Only through the years had it developed into a fishing attraction and beach spot.
“For Texas City, it’s the only thing left on our checklist of (major) things to do since Ike,” the mayor said.
Even if work on the dike started today, though, it would be at least a year before the 5-mile stretch could reopen to traffic. Doyle is toying with the idea of possibly making repairs to open a small part of the dike but said that would have to be closed again once full-scale repair work begins.
What’s for sure, Doyle said, is the city will be finding new ways to fund the dike’s upkeep when — and if — it reopens. He said the city has spent a lot of money on the dike through the years with little direct return for the investment.
While he acknowledged there is some economic impact, there’s never been a study to show how much the dike and the people it attracts contributes to the city’s coffers.
So, one possibility for when the dike does come back is anyone who visits will have to pay a fee so the city can offset costs. It’s an idea that was tossed around long before Hurricane Ike formed in the Gulf of Mexico, and it is one that has been met by stiff opposition.
Doyle reiterated too that past thoughts of turning the dike into a Kemah Boardwalk-like entertainment venue were washed away by Ike as well.
The mayor said he is open to suggestions that balance the costs of maintaining the dike with the pleasure users get out of spending a lazy day fishing.
