A 55-mile barrier as tall as 17 feet is being proposed along the Texas Coast.

A study in 1975 wasn’t very successful with the public, or elected officials.

According to the AP, the grand idea for what would probably be the biggest seawall in the nation faces some major hurdles itself, chief among them a price tag of up to $4 billion.

But with thousands of people still in temporary housing 10 months after the storm, many say it is time to find a permanent means of protecting Galveston and the rest of the Houston metropolitan area.

A possible solution is to extend Galveston’s existing 10-mile seawall — first built after the Great Storm of 1900 killed 6,000 people — with a series of walls and retractable floodgates that would extend from one end of Galveston Bay to the other. The gates could be closed to block the entrance to the bay when a storm approaches.

Detractors say the dike could inflict environmental damage, obstruct the ocean views of some residents and end up trapping floodwaters in the bay. They also point out that massive government projects are often beset with huge cost overruns, delays and bureaucracy, according to the AP.

Nothing is set in stone, government officials told the AP.