April 8, 2014 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, is scheduled to complete construction of the $1.3 million Half Moon Reef project April 11 to restore 12 acres of sub-tidal reef and habitat located within the northernmost extent of the Half Moon Reef in Matagorda Bay, Texas – one of the largest restoration projects around the country.
The project is the second segment of a larger 60-acre reef restoration project led by The Nature Conservancy to restore one of the largest oyster reefs in the Gulf of Mexico. The project funds will continue to be used to monitor and survey the reef’s progression.
“This is the first estuary habitat restoration project of this kind in the Galveston District,” said Byron Williams, a project manager with the USACE Galveston District. “We used more than 3,900 cubic yards of recycled concrete consisting of various sizes of boulders and placed them in a specific pattern to encourage the reef to grow vertically and to try to replicate a real reef.”