Battleship Texas proposal on the brink of sinking

After learning the city doesn’t own prime property to berth the USS Texas in downtown Beaumont, city council members said the proposal could be dead in the water at a regularly scheduled meeting Dec. 7.

It would cost the city an estimated  $5.2 million to berth the 109-year-old battleship on the Neches River, according to a preliminary cost estimate provided by Lanier & Associates. The city voted to postpone a motion that would have given Lanier the go-ahead to firm up that $5 million estimation and give the city a more accurate, and likely, higher number. However, after learning the city can’t berth the ship in councilors’ ideal position, officials postponed that motion and said the proposal may never come to fruition.

“It was my desire to bring this to council so we could either do something or let it go, so we can get on with our work,” said Councilman Audwin Samuel, who, along with Councilman Taylor Neild brought the proposal before the city.

“We’re almost at a point where we need to throw all of this away and start all over,” said Neild.

Councilors agreed the ship should be berthed as far north as possible along the Neches River to ensure visibility from Interstate 10’s west and eastbound lanes. However, Beaumont Director of Public Works Bart Bartkowiak revealed the city is limited to berthing the ship in the water adjacent to Riverfront Park. That placement was unacceptable, the council agreed.

As it stands, city councilors’ only option to berth the battleship would mean blocking at least 573 feet of riverview at Riverfront Park. With the ship rising more than seven stories, councilors worry it would block riverfront views for the offices at Edison Plaza.

“I’m definitely not in favor of spending funds to do anything that we’re not in agreement to do, so at this point, unless we could move it farther down the river past the outfall, I think that kills the whole vision of that area,” Samuel said.

City Councilman Mike Getz, who first proposed to council bringing the battleship to Beaumont, said officials should reach out to owners of private properties farther north along the Neches River to seek berthing permission. However, City Manager Kyle Hayes said that would prove problematic since it would mean blocking Brakes Bayou, a drainage outlet recently constructed by the city using FEMA funding to alleviate flooding in the neighborhoods lining Calder Avenue.

In fact, Hayes revealed any placement of the ship would actually hamper work already in progress by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps is in the process of approving a bank stabilization project for Riverfront Park, and any additional proposals that could affect that project would result in delays for the Corps’ current work.

“There’s a lot of issues that come into play,” Hayes said about the notion of sending the Army Corps of Engineers another Neches River proposal while it’s working to approve the Riverfront Park Bank Stabilization Project, a proposal the Corps has had for over a year. “Anything you tried to do down here that ties along the riverfront would have to go back to the engineers, and you would basically have to re-engineer that portion and wait for approval on that.”

Adding a 60-million-pound boat to the picture would necessitate a re-evaluation from the Army Corps of Engineers on a project they still haven’t completed.

“You can’t submit the battleship to the Army Corps of Engineers anyway until you have a plan,” Bartkowiak said, adding that it would take up to nine months for Lanier to finish its estimate. “Then, you’re going to have to submit it to the Corps at some point.”

Battleship at a glance

The USS Texas first launched in 1912. It saw action in the North Sea during World War I and escorted war convoys across the Atlantic Ocean in World War II. It was the first U.S. battleship to become a permanent museum ship.

By Battleship Texas Foundation Representative Tony Gregory’s estimation, it will take approximately 250,000 annual visitors to keep the ship financially afloat and self-sufficient. That means the museum needs to average approximately 685 paid visitors each day wherever it’s berthed. Getz assured councilors at multiple meetings that the USS Alabama, berthed in Mobile, Alabama, approximately half a mile off Interstate 10, regularly has more than 300,000 visitors a year. The Alabama Tourism Department reported 188,652 USS Alabama visitors in 2020, below the Battleship Texas’ break-even point.

Gregory said the group hopes to be done with repairs and in its new home by the second quarter of 2023, but Bartkowiak says there’s “no way” Beaumont can have a dock prepared by then.

“When they want to finish at the drydock with that ship,” said Barkowiak, “there’s no way we’re done by the summer of 2023. There’s no possible way to have the dock ready by then.”