4/17/24 – While addressing Houston City Council this morning, Texas General Land Office (GLO) Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has given the City and Harris County a two-year extension on the use of Harvey Disaster Relief funds. Without this extension, the City of Houston and Harris […]
Royal Pines, a new, 150-acre development in Porter at the north end of West Lake Houston Parkway (WLHP) is mobilizing for construction. The developer began clearing and grading the site in April 2022. By September 2022, they finished. And by October 2022, they were flooding neighbors. For the past 18 months, they’ve been working on […]
Northpark culvert installation resumed in a major way last week. For several months, utility conflicts stalled installation of the 6’x8′ box culverts down the center of Northpark Drive. During preparation of the center ditch, contractors found gas lines buried at insufficient depth. With those conflicts now resolved, according to Project Manager Ralph De Leon, installation […]
Pictures taken of a new Huffman development after a 3.75-inch, 2-year rain last week illustrate why flood risk increases during construction compared to other phases of a project. Aerial images taken over Sila, west of the Huffman-Cleveland Road, show: Friendswood took more precautions with the 553-acre Sila than most developers take with their projects. Regardless, […]
The persistent after-hours pumping of silty stormwater from the Trammell Crow construction site into the street drains has been reported to Harris County Engineering for several months now. Despite warnings, the practice continues. The danger: accumulated silt in drain pipes and the river can reduce their conveyance, back water up in heavy rains, and lead […]
The April 10th storm that swept through Houston during the early morning hours dumped amazing amounts of rainfall just east of here. A report received today from Harris County Meteorologist Jeff Lindner says that the April 10th storm dumped 12-17 inches of rain in a 12 hour period in a swatch across East Texas. The […]
Correction: This sand pit in this post was sold by Hallett to Riverwalk Porter LLC on January 23, 2024. Google Earth shows a massive breach in the southernmost pond of the Hallett San Jacinto West Fork mine in a satellite image dated February 19, 2024. Here’s how the same area looked today from a drone. […]
This morning, City of Houston contractors began clearing access points for the Tree Lane Bridge repairs in Kingwood next to Bear Branch Elementary where more than 600 students attend classes. The City announced the kickoff of the project on February 21, 2024, but work actually started today. Extent of Damage This is actually the second […]
In the latest episode of the Northpark Entergy saga, last week, Entergy finally began erecting new power poles outside of the Northpark Drive expansion right of way. While this is a huge improvement after four years of no Entergy activity, don’t get too excited. In its quest to help develop an all weather evacuation route […]
Colorado State University, which has one of the best reputations in seasonal hurricane forecasting, predicted on April 4 that the 2024 Atlantic Season will be “extremely active.” Compared to the average for 30 years from 1991 to 2020, the metrics suggest tropical activity could increase by 50% or more. Below are some of CSU’s key […]