The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday presented a detailed overview of the Port Arthur element of the Sabine‑to‑Galveston regional flood‑risk reduction project, including contract status, scope and a Nov. 20 public open house for residents.

Arnon Bazemore, Sabine‑to‑Galveston project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, told the Port Arthur City Council the Port Arthur component includes 14.3 miles of earthen levee improvements (about 10 miles of raises and 4.3 miles of new levee), roughly 6.2 miles of concrete floodwall work (replacing older I‑walls with more robust T‑wall foundations), fronting protection for existing pump stations, installation of about 20 road and railroad closure gates and a new pump station in the Rollea Gully area. "Our goal is to improve the resiliency of this system by providing a greater level of protection in what this system currently does," Bazemore said.

Bazemore said the Port Arthur project is being delivered in multiple contracts. PAV‑1 is complete, PAV‑3 is under construction, and PAV‑4 was recently awarded as a design‑build contract; PAV‑4 is currently in roughly the 30–35% design phase with field surveys and geotechnical work underway. He said PAV‑3 work focuses on three zones around Alligator, Lakeside and Port Laker pump stations and includes batter piles, sheet‑pile cutoffs and preparation for T‑wall foundations.

On funding, Bazemore said the Corps and the nonfederal sponsor — Jefferson County Drainage District No. 7 — signed a project partnership agreement that assigns 65% of project costs to the Corps and 35% to DD‑7. He told council the project was authorized and received congressional funding beginning in 2018 and cited a program figure the Corps presented at the meeting; he also said the project has seen significant cost increases since that authorization.

The Corps announced a public open house on Thursday, Nov. 20 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church (in the Proctor Street area) to present the PAV‑4 vicinity contract and invited local residents. Bazemore and Jefferson County Drainage District representatives said the Corps will publish open‑house notices in local media, post materials to the city website and distribute door hangers in nearby neighborhoods.

Council members pressed the Corps on neighborhood impacts and construction access. The Corps said it will attempt to minimize private‑property acquisitions, limit impacts where possible and coordinate staging and haul routes; officials said they plan a second open house once visible truck activity begins in order to answer resident concerns. Council members asked the Corps to route heavy truck traffic away from local residential streets and to use existing access roads where feasible.

What happens next: the Corps continues design and geotechnical work on PAV‑4 with an anticipated construction start in 2026 on that contract and multi‑year work on the broader program; the public open house is scheduled for Nov. 20 to provide neighborhood‑level information.

Sources: Presentation and Q&A with Arnon Bazemore and Corps staff at the Nov. 4 Port Arthur City Council meeting.