$17.5M TO BE SPENT REPAIRING BATTLESHIP TEXAS 
Leaking and taking on Ship Channel water since last summer, Battleship Texas will be receiving some structural repairs beginning this April: Texas Parks and Wildlife announced today — the 99th anniversary of the ship’s call to action — that a $17.5 million contract with a North Carolina firm will cover “about half” the repairs needed; they’ll be “a first step,” says TPWD’s Scott Stover, to ready the sinking ship for its eventual dry berth. During the repairs, history seekers and field trippers should still be able to see some significant sights: “[T]he ship will remain open to the public as conditions allow, and visitors will see plenty of activity at the site, as well as construction equipment and an access barge on the north side of the ship.” [Texas Parks and Wildlife; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
Sign up for the Newsletter
I can’t believe they are wasting money on this! It’s old and in the way!! The highest and best use for it would be to drop it from a great height onto the Astrodome!!!
Glad to see money going to the old ship. It’s the last dreadnought style military ship in existence and fascinating for history or military buffs.
It’s a part of history and should be preserved, however it’s in the absolute worst area. Yes in at the SJ monument which gets little to no traffic since they decided to turn it back into a ‘natural’ state. Send the ship to Corpus and display it with the Lexinton at the State Aquarium. No one wants to go frolic amongst the chemical plants.
The reason Battleship Texas is in such disrepair is due to the fact that Texas won’t cough up the cash to put her in dry berth. Until then, we’ll just have to perform emergency repairs every 20 years or so.
I say disassemble the Astrodome, and use it for scrap metal to repair the Battleship Texas.
From the press release:
“Funding for the repairs comes from General Obligation Bonds approved by voters and specifically appropriated by the Texas Legislature for Battleship TEXAS repairs.”
At least they aren’t going to close a park or sell off some park land to pay for this. Battleship Texas does have piles of history, serving in WW I all the way up to being in the flotilla that supported the D-Day invasion in WWII. But, 35 mil is a huge pricetag to preserve that history
Surprised they aren’t scuttling her and building a Tuscan inspried planned community and a Starbucks over it.
How about a 2 for 1 deal, and move it to the Astrodome. TPWD gets their dry berth, and the Astrodome gets put to good use.
wow 17M would sure feed a lot of hungry homeless people…..the priorities are all wrong…scrap it!!!
I had a weird dream last night they managed to build a museum for it in the museum district; bring it out of the water and drive it across Houston to its final spot…
pipe dream I guess…
Here’s what they did in Chicago with a German U Boat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUuQIpVuhCg
Gary, I’ve never actually seen hungry homeless people in Houston, there are tons of services for the homeless through charities and churches, the ones on the corner are always asking for beer money.
The homeless are a problem. But there’s no reason why it should be either-or between helping the homeless and preserving USS Texas.
Now let’s go back to that whole space shuttle kerfuffle, do we now see why Houston got a replica? Name me 5 things in this city that we actually feel like putting money in to, to take care of. I can only come up with one, freeways, and we do a lackluster job there.
List of biggest misconceptions, #79: Homeless people are in any way hungry.
The ship would actually be a perfect place for the homeless. They just need to repair it first and tow it up Buffalo Bayou as close to downtown as possible.
r boyd I love you
Just build a dike around it and pour in lots of bags of concrete, stir, let dry…. paint top of concrete brown to match surrounding water…. done….