PART II: SUMMARY OF CORPS BREAKWATER AND JETTY STRUCTURES IN SWD 
3. The SWD presently maintains 12 coastal projects which contain a 
total of 4 breakwaters and 19 jetties. These projects are located within US 
Army Engineer District, Galveston (SWG), which includes the entire Texas guif 
coast (Figure 1). The eight projects located directly on the gulf and the 
Port O'Connor project contain dual jetties; the Palacios and Port Aransas 
Harbor projects contain dual breakwaters; and the Point Bolivar project has a 
single jetty. 
4, Cumulative length of the structures is 176,333 lin ft*, of which the 
Galveston Harbor and Sabine Pass jetties account for 61.4 percent and the two 
breakwater projects account for 2.4 percent. As originally constructed, about 
170,177 lin ft (96.5 percent) had a rubble-mound cross section and the re- 
mainder--6,165 lin ft at point Bolivar and Port O'Connor--had essentially a 
steel-sheet-pile structure. Approximately 3,230 lin ft of sheetpiling has 
since been supplemented with a rubble-mound section, and nearly 62,900 lin ft 
of the structures have been capped with asphalt or concrete although the 
present amount is somewhat less due to subsequent alterations. The asphalt 
capping, totaling 3,944 lin ft, was placed at four sections of the Galveston 
Harbor jetties during the 1930's. 
5. The five projects at Sabine Pass, Galveston, Freeport, Aransas Pass, 
and Brazos Island have a history predating 1900. These early projects were 
marked by various construction methods and extended time periods resulting 
from several factors, including availability of materials, inadequate design 
guidance, storm damage, economics, and the construction methods themselves. 
Fascine mats ballasted with riprap stone were the prevalent early method of 
construction. This type of construction was used at Sabine Pass into the 
1920's but was discontinued on the remaining projects prior to 1900. The 
resulting construction method consisted of building a rubble-mound section 
directly on existing ground, starting with small riprap stone, building up the 
section with a core of various sized riprap stone (laterally confined by prior 
placement of larger cover slope stone), and covering with granite pieces 
weighing several tons each. The project at Brazos Island was finally realized 
* A table of factors for converting non-SI units of measurement to SI (metric) 
units is presented on page 3. 
