Excavation Rate of Woodridge Detention Basin Suddenly Increases
6/30/26 – Two days after posting about the slow rate of progress on Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) Woodridge Detention Basin, the rate suddenly increased. And dramatically! But, will it be enough?
The sudden increase coincided with the start date for HCFCD’s new Executive Director Marcus Stuckett who is under pressure to accelerate operations. Stuckett must beat tight federal deadlines on a number of projects to avoid losing up to $322 million in federal funding.
New Week, New Vibe
When I visited the Woodridge site around 1PM yesterday (Monday, 6/29/26), I saw six dump trucks leaving the site within a half hour. Today, I returned twice. At 9AM, I saw five leave within a half hour. Ditto when I returned around 11. So, the rate has increased to an average of five or six loads per half hour. That’s good news.
Photos Taken 6/30/26
I’m not sure why the rate increased when it did; Stuckett’s starting day may have just been coincidence. Regardless, I’m glad the contractor finally got construction moving. See photos taken this morning.
A truck would pull up to the excavator about every five minutes. At one point, I even witnessed a traffic jam at the site entrance on Woodland Hills.
More Improvement Needed…Even with New Rate
Given sampling error, traffic delays related to Loop 494 closure at Northpark, overtime, weather, etc., it’s still not certain whether the new rate of excavation will beat the contractual deadline. Let’s rerun the numbers using this type of dump truck to see if they’re close.
One of these trucks can carry an average of 22 cubic yards per load; that’s more than the type of truck I previously thought they were going to use.
- The contractor must move a million cubic yards of dirt.
- 1,000,000 cubic yards ÷ 22 cubic yards/load = 45,455 truckloads.
- Contract specifies 552 calendar days. But contractor is working only six days per week and 90 days have elapsed already. That leaves 383 work days.
- 45,455 truckloads ÷ 383 = approximately 120 truckloads per 8-hour day or 15 per hour.
So far this week, I’ve seen them moving 10-12 loads per hour. So they may still come up short.
And I still haven’t seen any activity on the Taylor Gully portion of the project yet; it has the same deadline. And HCFCD construction docs specify that they expect the contractor to work on both phases simultaneously.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/30/26
3227 Days since Harvey
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