---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 426b"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "426b"
heading: "Applicability of existing laws; projects referred to Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/426b"
units:
  - "Chapter 9 — Protection of Navigable Waters and of Harbor and River Improvements Generally"
  - "Subchapter I — In General"
---

# §426b. Applicability of existing laws; projects referred to Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors


All provisions of existing law relating to examinations and surveys and to works of improvement of rivers and harbors shall apply, insofar as practicable, to examinations and surveys and to works of improvement relating to [shore](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=4) protection; except that all projects having to do with [shore](/usc/33/426h–1.md?p=4) protection shall be referred for consideration and recommendation to the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors.


## Source credit

(July 31, 1945, ch. 334, § 2, 59 Stat. 508; Pub. L. 88–172, § 1, Nov. 7, 1963, 77 Stat. 304.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Provision for the referral of projects having to do with shore protection for consideration and recommendation to the Beach Erosion Board have been omitted as obsolete in view of the abolition of the Beach Erosion Board and the transfer of its review function to the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors by Pub. L. 88–172, § 1. See section 426–3 of this title.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Termination of Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors and Reassignment of Duties and Responsibilities

For termination of Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors 180 days after Oct. 31, 1992, and reassignment of duties and responsibilities by Secretary of Army, see section 223 of Pub. L. 102–580, set out as a note under section 541 of this title.