After Hurricane Harvey severely damaged slopes along Buffalo Bayou beside Houston’s Wortham Center and Bayou Place, the city sought a more cost-effective, green alternative to hard armor. Construction EcoServices recommended Profile’s GreenArmor® System, combining Futerra® TRMs, Flexterra® HP-FGM®, ProGanics® BSM™ and ProPlus® soil amendments with articulated concrete blocks and structural repairs to stabilize steep, difficult-to-access slopes. Flowable fill, erosion control materials and vegetation worked together to protect the building and restore the site. When Tropical Storm Imelda later flooded the bayou, the reinforced slope held, the protected portion of the Wortham Center stayed dry, and the solution demonstrated strong performance under extreme conditions.
Key Points
- Hurricane Harvey dropped nearly 63 inches (1,600 mm) of rain, driving Buffalo Bayou more than 40 feet (12.2 m) above mean water level and undermining slopes and the Bayou Place parking garage wall.
- The city selected Construction EcoServices’ recommendation of the GreenArmor System, a reinforced vegetation solution that offers twice the erosion resistance of natural vegetation at 30 to 50 percent less cost than hard armor.
- Installation combined flowable fill, more than 3,000 articulated concrete blocks, Futerra® 7020 TRM, ProGanics® BSM™, Aqua-pHix™, JumpStart™, BioPrime™ and Flexterra® HP-FGM® on steep slopes with limited access.
- Three months after installation, Tropical Storm Imelda dropped 42 inches (1,067 mm) of rain, but the renovated slope held, the protected section of the Wortham Center stayed dry, and the GreenArmor System “worked great.”
