Guest Editorial: Where are the New Lake Houston Flood Gates?
7/24/24 – Note: This guest editorial by Kingwood resident Tony Lanson is timely. The Lake Houston Area is currently under yet another flood watch.
Why are the promised Lake Houston flood gates not completed? Why has the schedule slipped repeatedly? Will they really be constructed by 2028 – the latest target date? That’s 11 years after Harvey and five years later than originally promised. We need them to reduce flood risk.
The Need
Harvey devastated Lake Houston communities in 2017. It damaged more than 16,000 homes and 3,300 businesses. It also took more than a dozen lives in Kingwood alone.
The threat to our community’s sense of peace and wellbeing has eroded the value proposition for current and prospective Lake Houston residents and businesses.
Repeated Delays
Our elected officials did their job. They responded to an urgent mandate to act. They:
- Persevered through years of consultant reports and 11 engineering alternatives.
- Dodged inflationary pressure.
- Kept their focus as the project scope wandered.
- Persevered through excuses and delays.
- Found a way to fund the dam gates after the projected cost tripled.
However, the project now seems stuck in a low gear. Project-level leadership seems to lack urgency to deliver.
Has the Lake Houston Flood Gates project team been challenged to simplify the process and accelerate the schedule? Urgency seems to be missing – even after the May 2024 flood and Hurricane Beryl rekindled old fears and anxieties.
Early Missteps
From 2018 to 2023 the City of Houston and the CWA presided over contract firms, project scoping, design, costing, permitting, bidding and reviews.
During that time the Lake Houston Flood Gates project was reduced to half the orginal scope when it was “found that the cost of the proposed gates exceeded the project’s budget” after factoring in reinforcement of the existing dam. In 2022, City officials said they planned to start the project “later this year and complete construction within 18 months.”
However, the City of Houston could find no contractors to bid on the project because of “constructability risk.” Was there no constructability review during five years of engineering?
Thus, engineering and design for the project turned into a “start over.”
The Latest Plan
The new Lake Houston Flood Gates project has 11 tainter gates in the eastern, earthen portion of the dam instead of crest gates on the western portion. But the project’s cost tripled.

On May 25, 2024, we learned the project could hopefully begin construction in 2025. Officials hinted at possible completion in 2028.
Dave Martin, Dan Crenshaw, Charles Cunningham, Dan Huberty, Brandon Creighton and a host of others went back to the well and secured the money. But at best, construction will finish 11 years after Harvey. Palpable frustration exists in the Lake Houston community.
The frustration is reasonable. We should challenge the explanations. Why is this project taking so long compared to similar projects?
Larger Projects Completed in Less Time at Lower Costs
Consider the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) project to construct the Wirtz and Starcke Dams simultaneously in 1949.
Each dam project alone was larger than the addition of 11 gates to the Lake Houston Dam. And both dams were completed in two years.
Now, focus on changes to the Wirtz Dam flood gates. In 2023, the LCRA announced it would replace the nine original gates plus one that was added in 1974. That makes 10 gates in total. And each gate is larger than those proposed for Lake Houston. LCRA estimates completion in 2025.
Again, they are doing it in two years compared to Lake Houston’s current 11-year schedule. That should give everyone reason for pause – especially considering that the Wirtz gates are twice as big as the Lake Houston gates.
Each gate will be fabricated on site. The old gates will be replaced individually, requiring coffer dams for each. Yet the Wirtz project will cost half as much as the Lake Houston project.
Need to Improve Project Management
Can’t we do 10 smaller gates in less than three years? Especially when it’s the same gate replicated 10 times. Replication and standardization usually increase efficiency, reduce time, and cut costs.
Is an optimization review or constructability review with prospective contractors planned this time to avoid another “no bid” situation?
Is it time to ask if the Lake Houston Flood Gates project is being managed prudently with best project management practices?
Good project management assures all stakeholders that the best effort is occurring. It sets reasonable expectations. And project transparency with the public goes a long way in generating trust.
More gates on the Lake Houston dam will not make everyone safe in the event of another Harvey. But the gates will prevent people from flooding in smaller storms, which are much more frequent.
Consider, for instance, the early May storm this year. It was a small fraction of Harvey. Yet thousands of homes had floodwater lapping at their foundations.
Expeditious completion of the project would support peace of mind, well-being and prosperity in our community. We need that right now as the community still reels from Hurricane Beryl and contemplates the start of what experts predict will be an abnormally active hurricane season.
Shouldn’t we have gotten ahead of this by now? Who will enforce the urgency to act?
By Tony Lanson, Kingwood Resident
2521 Days since Hurricane Harvey
ReduceFlooding.com will be happy to publish the City’s or Coastal Water Authority’s point of view on this important topic.