Houston Ship Channel, Galveston Bay, Texas. Report 1. Hydraulic and Salinity Verification: Hydraulic Model Investigation

The Houston Ship Channel model, a fixed-bed model constructed to linear scale ratios of 1:600 horizontally and 1:60 vertically, reproduced a portion of the Gulf of Mexico adjacent to the Galveston Harbor Entrance, the Galveston Bay complex, including Trinity Bay in its entirety, East Bay, a portion of West Bay, the Houston Ship Channel to its upstream boundary in the City of Houston, Texas, and Buffalo Bayou from the Houston Ship Channel turning basin to the confluence of White Oak Bayou. The model was equipped with necessary appurtenances for the accurate reproduction and measurement of tides, tidal currents, salinity intrusion, freshwater inflow, density effects, shoaling, and other important prototype phenomena. The purpose of the model study was to determine if the present cost of maintenance dredging can be reduced by proposed plans involving channel realignments, partial or complete diking of connecting bays, sediment traps, dikes in Galveston Bay, local contractions, enlargements, and other remedial measures. (Modified author abstract)