Harris County Slowdown Extends Beyond HCFCD

7/31/2026 – For the last few years, I’ve posted about the slowdown in the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD). Based on a tip, I recently explored contract awards taking up to 20 months to get through the Purchasing Department. So, the slowdown appears to extend beyond just HCFCD.

Bonfire, the County’s purchasing portal, shows the status of projects in the Purchasing Department. Among them are engineering/design for the Kingwood Diversion Ditch and numerous feasibility studies.

I’m not alleging incompetence, malfeasance or corruption. I’m just alleging slowness and a lack of urgency. See examples below.

Kingwood Diversion Ditch

The Kingwood Diversion Ditch project grew out of the Kingwood Area Drainage Analysis conducted by Neel-Schaffer, Inc. in 2019. The 600-page report, delivered a year later, recommended immediate implementation of two projects: the Diversion Ditch and Taylor Gully.

In 2024, U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw secured an earmark for final engineering of the project through the EPA.

After that, entries in Bonfire, the county’s purchasing database show how long it took to secure and mobilize a vendor.

1. 04/18/2025 – Request for Qualifications (RFQ) released on Bonfire
2. 05/19/2025 – Consultant Submittals due
3. 09/11/2025 – Authorization to negotiate with Halff (the contractor) goes to Commissioners Court
4. 07/30/2026 – Notification that the contract with Halff will be on 8/6/2026 Commissioners Court (See #335.)
5. Total Time  = 475 days (almost 16 months)

I asked ChatGPT what the normal vendor procurement time for such projects should be. It replied, “Texas state procurement guidance for formal service contracts estimates a minimum procurement cycle of roughly 86 days, with complex procurements commonly extending to 198 days or more.”

Drilling down, ChatGPT also indicated the following ranges for large counties, such as Harris.

• Excellent performance: 2–3 months
• Normal performance: 3–5 months
• Acceptable but slow: 5–7 months

ChatGPT concluded, “If a county repeatedly takes 9–12 months simply to hire a consultant, that often indicates process inefficiencies, staffing shortages, indecision, or governance bottlenecks.”

I verified these time ranges and conclusions with former county leaders.

Vendor Selections for Various Feasibility Studies

To see if the Diversion Ditch selection process was an anomaly, I checked several other recent vendor procurements involving HCFCD projects.

1. 12/09/2024 – (Yes… 2024!) RFQ released on Bonfire
2. 02/03/2025 – Consultant submittals due
3. 04/09/2025 – Authorization to negotiate with several vendors went to Commissioners Court. Vendors included: AECOM; Civitas; Frees-Nichols, Inc.; Gauge; Halff; HDR; Huitt-Zollars; LJA; LAN; Michael Baker; Pape-Dawson; Torres.
4. 03/11/2026 – Award to Gauge and Michael Baker – 457 days after RFQ issued (15 months)
5. 06/04/2026 – Award to Michael Baker, Halff and Torres 542 days after RFQ issued (18 months)
6. 07/22/2026 – Award to Pape-Dawson and Aecom – 590 days after RFQ issued (almost 20 months)
7. 07/30/2026 – Award to LAN, and Frees-Nichols, Inc. – 605 days after RFQ (20 months)

Times Represent One Phase of Many

Keep in mind that these times represent single phases of projects. Other phases include: preliminary engineering and construction and maintenance.

And then there’s the time required for the chosen vendor to actually DO THE WORK.

People familiar with HCFCD and Harris County call the situation unacceptable. They point to the previous Executive Director of HCFCD; the Purchasing Department; the Department of Economic Equity and Opportunity; and the County Attorney as the architects of this quagmire. It’s not just Purchasing.

Costs of Delays Not Reported

HCFCD’s new Executive Director, Marcus Stuckett, has his work cut out for him. He must not only turn around HCFCD, he must light a fire under other county departments as well.

Such delays have real costs even though they are rarely reported.

The hidden costs include the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding; loss of purchasing power due to inflation; higher tax rates to pay for future construction; people living with flood risk longer than necessary; and, lest we forget, potential future flood damage.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/31/2026

3258 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.