North Beach redevelopment: Task force unveils solutions to flooding, erosion problems

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Areas of North Beach flooded Thursday, making some roads impassable for low vehicles. National Weather Service Corpus Christi issued a coastal flood warning for Nueces and Kleberg counties and a coastal flood advisory for Aransas, Refugio and San Patricio counties. Both last until 7 p.m. Friday. Wochit

North Beach Infrastructure Task Force officials have found solutions they say will solve the peninsula’s decades-long problems with storm water drainage, flooding and beach erosion.

The task force unveiled the redevelopment proposal Wednesday at the Texas State Aquarium. 

The presentation included a brief history of North Beach and an engineering analysis of its long-standing problems.  

How the problems can be solved while also creating an attractive urban, waterfront community at North Beach were explained. 

The two primary features of the North Beach infrastructure solution are:

• a canal more than 60 feet wide that opens from Corpus Christi Bay, where Burleson Street is now, and extends north-to-south by over one mile
• a chain of breakwater islands constructed off the beach, from north of the U.S.S. Lexington, to the northern tip of the beach.

A virtual tour of the new North Beach displays the vision of the proposal, which would offer entertainment and accommodations to the more than one million annual visitors to the beach.

The task force also presented a timeline for infrastructure improvements that will coincide with the opening of the new $1 billion Harbor Bridge. 

The new canal system and breakwater islands would address North Beach’s historic drainage, flooding and erosion problems, while creating new birding habitat and added protection of the beach from storm surge and windstorm damage.

The task force was formed in April 2018 by Mayor Joe McComb and the City Council to study solutions for storm water drainage and flooding issues on North Beach.

Carolyn Vaughn, Nueces County commissioner; Everett Roy, District 1 City Council member, and Jeffory Blackard, a Dallas-based developer with experience working with local and national governments, serve on the task force. 

More information will be available Wednesday on the task force’s website: NorthBeach.cc.

This is a developing story. Check back to Caller.com for updates. 

IF YOU GO

WHAT: North Beach Task Force to unveil redevelopment proposal

WHEN: 8 a.m. Wednesday

WHERE: Texas State Aquarium’s Whataburger 4-D Theater, 2710 N. Shoreline Blvd

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