After Five Weeks, Culverts under Kingwood Drive Still Clogged
8/1/2025 – After a month of supposedly working to restore conveyance of blocked culverts under Kingwood Drive, the culverts remain blocked and crews seem in no hurry to remove the sediment. They may be disputing whether they were hired to do that.
City Met With Community Representatives in June
Five weeks ago, on 6/24/2025, representatives of the Houston City Council District E office, Houston Public Works, Kings Forest and the Bear Branch Trail Association met to discuss clearing a ditch that had not been cleaned out for more than 20 years.
The ditch cuts through Kings Forest between Valley Manor and Twin Grove, next to Kingwood High School. Then it crosses under Kingwood Drive and empties into Kingwood Lake.
One week after City and community representatives met, a contractor started clearing trees around the ditch.
However, after a full month, the contractor has yet to address the ditch itself, especially the critical blocked culverts under Kingwood Drive. And crews appear to be on hold. Activity has virtually ceased.
Confusion Re: Scope of Work
In talking with the contractor and the City, it has become clear that there is a misunderstanding regarding the project scope. No one at the City will send me the scope document or a contract outlining responsibilities despite repeated requests – both in person and via email. And the contractor keeps saying, “Talk to the City.”
The best I’ve been able to get is a suggestion that the scope may have been “vague.” Meanwhile, equipment has been mostly idle for two weeks.
The contractor has seven work days left before school starts on August 13. At that point, the logistics of working around thousands of high school students will make the work infinitely more complicated because of the need to close down at least one lane of Kingwood Drive.
Blockages Under Kingwood Drive Remain
Restoring conveyance will require removing lots of muck from areas around the culverts and in the median itself.
North of the westbound lanes on Kingwood Drive, culverts are half blocked with sediment. See below.
Clearly, plenty of sediment must be removed before conveyance of the culverts is fully restored. Based on the photos above, I estimate conveyance has been reduced 50 percent.
Half of Outfall Blockage Remains
The first photo below shows what the outfall on the south side of Kingwood Drive looked like before the start of work at the end of June. The second shows what it looked like today.
Comparing the pre- and post shots, it appears that the contractor removed half the sediment blocking the outfall. One of the workers told me they intended to finish this portion of the job. However, he didn’t know what they intend to do about the median and culverts. He also said they had finished removing brush.
Waiting On…?
For the past few days, I’ve seen unmarked contractor vehicles parked next to the job site. Periodically, someone leaves one and walks into the woods. One even sat in the excavator above while I photographed it.
But as of quitting time today, the excavator had not moved. I went back and checked it three hours later.
To my knowledge, it has not moved for several days. It’s hard to imagine why workers would go to work and not work.
City Council Member Fred Flickinger has vowed to find out next week whether the City is being billed for downtime.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/1/25
2894 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
