As compensation for natural resource damages caused by past releases at the Former Gulf Oil Refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, a wetland restoration project was carried out in Lower Neches Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in nearby Bridge City. ARCADIS was involved in the construction of approximately 119 acres of wetlands, including approximately 32 acres of coastal prairie and 87 acres of emergent estuarine marsh in the WMA. ARCADIS served as the design engineer and general contractor for the project, which involved finalizing a conceptual approach into a final design, completing pre-construction planning, and overseeing all aspects of construction.

The first step the team took was to restore historical flow patterns. Next, they developed the coastal wet prairie by excavating and mining a confined dredge disposal unit, and created a new estuarine marsh in the shallow open water areas by building and vegetating planting platforms (mounds and terraces built from excavated bottom sediment). Improving on a pilot test to evaluate the suitability of ‘reverse dredging’ for wetland construction in 2001, the team created an alternative plan with federal and State of Texas trustees. The new plan used materials at the site to their greatest advantage, including ecologically active mudflats built from the slurried material and independent mounds constructed from excavated sediment materials within the open water areas and sidecasted into a mound configuration. Planting platforms were constructed in open water areas utilizing three innovative construction methods. Crucial to the success of the restoration at the Lower Neches WMA was the utilization of flexible, innovative approaches implemented rapidly in response to in-field observations and challenges.