HOUSTON (September 14, 2009)--State Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson announced details Monday of a $135.4 million plan to fight beach erosion along the Texas coast and offer protection from future hurricanes.

Just more than a year ago, Hurricane Ike's powerful storm surge damaged thousands of homes in Galveston, neighboring Bolivar Peninsula and other communities across southeastern Texas.

It also scoured away beaches, swamped marshes with seawater and ruined thousands of acres of vegetation.

Patterson said work will begin immediately on 26 projects from South Padre Island in South Texas to McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge on the upper Texas Coast.

We're fighting on all fronts now in the battle against erosion," Patterson said.

"Critically needed projects from South Padre Island to McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge will begin immediately in an unprecedented effort to protect the Texas coast."

Major Projects
(Source: Texas General Land Office)

A $32 million project to restore the dunes along 20 miles of beaches protecting the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge

An $18.3 million project to rebuild a dune system on Bolivar Peninsula, as well as a $1.2 million project to renourish beaches on the far west end of the Bolivar Peninsula

An $11.7 million project to build more than seven miles of sand dunes, from the west end of Jamaica Beach to the Stavanger Beach subdivision

A $200,000 beach renourishment at Rollover Pass

A $1 million project to take sand from Park Road 100 and put it on critically eroding beaches in South Padre Island

An $885,000 project to rebuild previously nourished beaches on the west end of Galveston Island

A $1.6 million effort to rebuild dunes that once protected Quintana

A $2.3 million project to stabilize the shoreline on Treasure Island

A $1.5 million beach renourishment of South Padre Island beaches

A $1.4 million estuarine habitat restoration at McAllis Point in Galveston

The list also includes a test project on South Padre Island, in which a series of low-profile stabilizers will be built underwater and perpendicular to the shoreline in an attempt to capture sand on a critically eroding beach.