Houston 2050: We finally built the Ike Dike. Here's how it happened. | Opinion |
Editorial board member Nick Powell imagines that in 2050, Houston will celebrate the completion of the Gov. Matthew McConaughey Memorial Coastal Barrier.
As we begin 2026, the Houston Chronicle editorial board asked a simple question: What will Houston look like in 2050? Writing as if from that future moment, these op-eds reflect on the last 25 years and imagine the next quarter century. They explore the ambitions we may realize, the practices we may outgrow, and the city we may become as Houston reaches the midpoint of the 21st century.
Twenty years after breaking ground on the massive coastal barrier formerly known as the “Ike Dike,” the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that the project has finally been completed.
The last grains of sands were added to Galveston’s barren West End shoreline Friday, restoring a beach that had been almost completely wiped out by a series of violent hurricanes over the course of the project’s long-delayed construction.
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