Recommendations in the San Jacinto River Basin alone (Region 6) total 519. And they’re buried within the larger spreadsheet, making it difficult summarize and compare them, much less see how the money is being distributed locally.
State Flood Plan Costs Staggering
The costs of the state flood plan are staggering. If all projects were implemented statewide tomorrow, they would cost more than $54 billion in 2024 dollars. Those in the San Jacinto Basin would total almost $10 billion.
Three Categories of Recommendations
Recommendations fall into three categories: Evaluations (engineering studies that lay the groundwork for future construction projects); Flood-Mitigation Projects (construction); and Strategies (buyouts, elevations, etc.)
The table below shows the breakdown. Region 6 (the San Jacinto Watershed) contains a lower percentage of flood mitigation projects and higher percentages of Evaluations and Strategies than the rest of the state, which is broken down into 15 regions.
I’m still analyzing all these entries. But already several things have jumped out at me from the standpoint of a Lake Houston Area resident.
Most of our stormwater comes from Montgomery County. But in the Evaluation list, Harris County projects outnumber those in Montgomery County by more than 5 to 1.
And most of the projects in Montgomery County tend to be limited in scope. For instance, Conroe has entries for a downtown master drainage plan, an Avenue M drainage plan, a South 3rd drainage plan and more.
Conroe also broke out separate projects for developing benefit-cost analyses associated with such projects and subdivision drainage projects.
Harris County and Galveston County, on the other hand, tended to look at things from a watershed-wide point of view.
Projects
The state flood plan lists only 69 flood-mitigation construction projects in all of the San Jacinto River Basin. And of those, only eight are upstream of Lake Houston. One is already a non-starter. The land for a detention basin on Spring Creek has already been sold for commercial development.
The remaining seven projects with their priority ranks include:
Caney Creek channel improvements and detention (#52)
Widening the West Fork and shaving down its flood plains (#67)
Peach Creek channel improvements and detention (#72)
Building a 1.6 mile earthen embankment to capture runoff from Winters Bayou in the East Fork watershed far upstream in San Jacinto County (#82).
Lake Creek Detention in Montgomery County (#105)
Improvements to the Kingwood Diversion Ditch (#144)
Cypress Creek detention (#149)
Strategies
It’s hard to see how any of the 654 strategies listed for the San Jacinto Basin would help the Lake Houston Area. Some might keep flooding from getting worse.
For instance:
Coastal Prairie Conservancy proposed a project to conserve more than 1,000 acres in the headwaters of Cypress Creek.
Harris County Flood Control proposed money for buyouts and relocations.
Missing: SJRA, Payment Plan, Integration
Strangely, the 147 pages of 3 point type in the state flood plan make no reference to the San Jacinto River Authority or SJRA.
Yet, as we saw in Harvey and again last May, the SJRA has huge gaps in its monitoring network upstream from Lake Conroe. During floods, these gaps make it difficult to assess how much water is moving toward the dam.
So dam operators tend to err on the side of caution and release more water than they may need to. In May, this contributed to the flooding of hundreds of structures downstream from the dam. To me, more gages would have been an important addition to the list.
It’s also not clear how Texas will pay for all these projects.
But let’s assume it’s a billion dollars. If the legislature voted that every other year, it would take at least a century to build all these projects with inflation factored in.
Finally, it’s not clear how all these projects work together to reduce flood risk, though many mention that they should only be considered after other projects.
Hey, it ain’t perfect. But you have to start somewhere!
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Texas-Flood-Planning-Regions.png?fit=1356%2C1014&ssl=110141356adminadmin2024-09-15 23:08:382024-09-15 23:08:40San Jacinto River Basin Recommendations in State Flood Plan
9/14/24 – Clearing of Beryl debris from Harris County creeks and channels by HCFCD/FEMA contractors continues more than two months after the storm that struck Houston on July 8, 2024.
The cleanup effort has advanced on two fronts: streets and channels. The City of Houston and Harris County precincts (in unincorporated areas) manage street cleanup. Harris County Flood Control District manages the creeks and channels.
I previously reported about the City’s efforts and its debris-tracker website. I also published a story about how to report problems discovered in streams and ditches.
But I really haven’t shown the latter crews in action.
HCFCD/FEMA Crew Clearing Backland Gully
Chris Bloch, a local flood activist, rode along with some Harris County Flood Control Distict/FEMA contractors and grabbed these photos of the equipment they are using. Bloch took the pictures below on Backland Gully in Kings Point.
A marsh buggy, also known as an amphibious excavator, grabs onto tree blocking the channel and……drags it out of creek.
The contractor is clearing trees from numerous channels in the Kingwood Area. His company is also working Bens Branch, Bear Branch, the lowest reach of Taylor Gully, White Oak Creek, Green Tree Ditch, Mills Branch, Caney Creek and more.
The contractor estimated his company has removed 2,000 tons of debris so far, but the number changes hourly.
Immensity of Job
Last week, they finished the area upstream of the Tree Lane Bridge on Bear Branch. But the equipment they used there is too small to handle the size and volume of trees that fell downstream from the bridge given the depth of the channel.
They have their work cut out for them.
See examples below. I took all six photos on 9/13/24 within a quarter mile stretch of Bens Branch downstream from Tree Lane.
Such blockages can catch other debris being swept downstream in storms and back water up, flooding homes.
HCFCD maintains 2500 miles of ditches, bayous and streams. If a quarter mile segment of one looks this bad, one can only imagine how long it will take to finish the job.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/14/24
2573 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 68 since Beryl
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/20240913-Marsh-Buggy-2.jpg?fit=1100%2C676&ssl=16761100adminadmin2024-09-14 16:45:462024-09-14 16:48:25Clearing of Beryl Debris from Creeks and Channels Continues
Northpark Drive construction crews have finished placing rebar in a 1000 foot long stretch on both sides of the entrance to Kings Mill. They will begin pouring concrete there on Monday, 9/16/24 at 3 AM. Concrete trucks will enter and leave the construction zone approximately every six minutes.
Because workers will spread the concrete next to the inbound lanes, traffic will be reduced to one lane until approximately 1 PM. However, both inbound lanes should open for the evening rush hour.
Rebar and forms ready for pour at 3AM Monday. Traffic on right will narrow to one lane to protect workers spreading the concrete.Looking west from Kings Mill Entrance at rebar ready for concrete.
At this time, the construction team has scheduled additional concrete pours for 9/20, 9/27, and 10/1; times and dates subject to change.
Project managers evaluated all-night and all-weekend scenarios for pouring the concrete, but encountered legal restrictions having to do with worker safety and/or cost.
Back-and-Forth Paving Plan
The general plan is for crews to pour one side of one stretch of the road while prepping the other. After they finish the new middle lanes, the old outer lanes will be demolished one side at a time. They will reroute traffic to the middle lanes will reconstructing the old lanes.
At this point, neither inbound nor outbound traffic will be shut down completely, though it will narrow to one lane on the side where concrete is being poured.
Looking east at entire stretch of rebar on right. The next pour will be on other side of road.
More Visible Progress
Ralph De Leon, the project manager, emphasized that most of the wrinkles that the project experienced in the last year have been ironed out at this point. However, one small snag remains re: a switch of fire hydrants and buildings with commercial sprinkler systems on the north side of Northpark.
Several companies and a church are migrating to the City of Houston water system, and it’s apparently taking longer than expected for the City’s billing and meter installation department to catch up with the new infrastructure installation. Worst case: some businesses may get free water for a month or so.
De Leon asked for patience. “People don’t see all the work that’s going on underground, but that’s the real heavy part of the lift,” he said. “People will begin to see a lot more progress on Monday. The above-ground ‘flat work’ that everyone sees goes much faster.”
Major Steps After This
The area between the Diversion Ditch and Russell Palmer Road will be paved as part of Phase II, which includes everything up to and a little bit past Woodland Hills Drive.
Paving crews will next complete the new lanes between Russell Palmer and 494.
Looking NE across 494 and Northpark (right). First junction box has just been buried in lower left. Drainage team must next bore under 494 and railroad tracks.
Next, paving crews will turn their attention to 494.
Loop 494 will get the same alternate side of the road treatment in sections until finished.
Finally, crews will begin work west to US59.
NW corner of Northpark and Loop 494, looking west toward 59
The entry ponds will likely be among the last things completed.
In my last post, I alluded to a total shutdown of Northpark while UnionPacific installed new beds and track across the road. Originally scheduled for sometime in October or November, that will now happen in January or February.
It’s too early to tell when bridge construction over 494 will commence.
For More Information
For schematic diagrams of the paving plan, click here.
As paving moves east to west, crossovers will need to close temporarily. To see the schedule, click here.
San Jacinto River Basin Recommendations in State Flood Plan
The new Texas state flood plan contains approximately 4351 recommendations in 15 regions statewide. The spreadsheet runs 147 pages in 3-point type. An eagle would have trouble seeing this type!
Recommendations in the San Jacinto River Basin alone (Region 6) total 519. And they’re buried within the larger spreadsheet, making it difficult summarize and compare them, much less see how the money is being distributed locally.
State Flood Plan Costs Staggering
The costs of the state flood plan are staggering. If all projects were implemented statewide tomorrow, they would cost more than $54 billion in 2024 dollars. Those in the San Jacinto Basin would total almost $10 billion.
Three Categories of Recommendations
Recommendations fall into three categories: Evaluations (engineering studies that lay the groundwork for future construction projects); Flood-Mitigation Projects (construction); and Strategies (buyouts, elevations, etc.)
The table below shows the breakdown. Region 6 (the San Jacinto Watershed) contains a lower percentage of flood mitigation projects and higher percentages of Evaluations and Strategies than the rest of the state, which is broken down into 15 regions.
Compiled from Volume II of Texas Flood Plan
The map below shows the different regions. Most contain one major river basin.
These three PDFs contain Region 6 projects extracted from the 147-page Volume II of the state flood plan.
High Level Observations
Evaluations
I’m still analyzing all these entries. But already several things have jumped out at me from the standpoint of a Lake Houston Area resident.
Most of our stormwater comes from Montgomery County. But in the Evaluation list, Harris County projects outnumber those in Montgomery County by more than 5 to 1.
And most of the projects in Montgomery County tend to be limited in scope. For instance, Conroe has entries for a downtown master drainage plan, an Avenue M drainage plan, a South 3rd drainage plan and more.
Conroe also broke out separate projects for developing benefit-cost analyses associated with such projects and subdivision drainage projects.
Harris County and Galveston County, on the other hand, tended to look at things from a watershed-wide point of view.
Projects
The state flood plan lists only 69 flood-mitigation construction projects in all of the San Jacinto River Basin. And of those, only eight are upstream of Lake Houston. One is already a non-starter. The land for a detention basin on Spring Creek has already been sold for commercial development.
The remaining seven projects with their priority ranks include:
Strategies
It’s hard to see how any of the 654 strategies listed for the San Jacinto Basin would help the Lake Houston Area. Some might keep flooding from getting worse.
For instance:
Missing: SJRA, Payment Plan, Integration
Strangely, the 147 pages of 3 point type in the state flood plan make no reference to the San Jacinto River Authority or SJRA.
Yet, as we saw in Harvey and again last May, the SJRA has huge gaps in its monitoring network upstream from Lake Conroe. During floods, these gaps make it difficult to assess how much water is moving toward the dam.
So dam operators tend to err on the side of caution and release more water than they may need to. In May, this contributed to the flooding of hundreds of structures downstream from the dam. To me, more gages would have been an important addition to the list.
It’s also not clear how Texas will pay for all these projects.
Currently, the flood infrastructure fund dashboard is down. So there’s no telling what the fund balance is.
But let’s assume it’s a billion dollars. If the legislature voted that every other year, it would take at least a century to build all these projects with inflation factored in.
Finally, it’s not clear how all these projects work together to reduce flood risk, though many mention that they should only be considered after other projects.
Hey, it ain’t perfect. But you have to start somewhere!
For More Information
To learn more about the first Texas state flood plan, read this executive summary, or a summary of the summary which I published earlier this year.
For a deeper dive into floodwaters, check out this Texas Water Development Board page.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/15/24
2574 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Clearing of Beryl Debris from Creeks and Channels Continues
9/14/24 – Clearing of Beryl debris from Harris County creeks and channels by HCFCD/FEMA contractors continues more than two months after the storm that struck Houston on July 8, 2024.
Prolonged 65-80 MPH winds raked the Lake Houston Area for hours, downing thousands of trees.
Who’s Responsible for What
The cleanup effort has advanced on two fronts: streets and channels. The City of Houston and Harris County precincts (in unincorporated areas) manage street cleanup. Harris County Flood Control District manages the creeks and channels.
I previously reported about the City’s efforts and its debris-tracker website. I also published a story about how to report problems discovered in streams and ditches.
But I really haven’t shown the latter crews in action.
HCFCD/FEMA Crew Clearing Backland Gully
Chris Bloch, a local flood activist, rode along with some Harris County Flood Control Distict/FEMA contractors and grabbed these photos of the equipment they are using. Bloch took the pictures below on Backland Gully in Kings Point.
A marsh buggy, also known as an amphibious excavator, grabs onto tree blocking the channel and…
The contractor is clearing trees from numerous channels in the Kingwood Area. His company is also working Bens Branch, Bear Branch, the lowest reach of Taylor Gully, White Oak Creek, Green Tree Ditch, Mills Branch, Caney Creek and more.
The contractor estimated his company has removed 2,000 tons of debris so far, but the number changes hourly.
Immensity of Job
Last week, they finished the area upstream of the Tree Lane Bridge on Bear Branch. But the equipment they used there is too small to handle the size and volume of trees that fell downstream from the bridge given the depth of the channel.
They have their work cut out for them.
See examples below. I took all six photos on 9/13/24 within a quarter mile stretch of Bens Branch downstream from Tree Lane.
Such blockages can catch other debris being swept downstream in storms and back water up, flooding homes.
HCFCD maintains 2500 miles of ditches, bayous and streams. If a quarter mile segment of one looks this bad, one can only imagine how long it will take to finish the job.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/14/24
2573 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 68 since Beryl
Northpark Crews Begin Pouring Concrete Monday, Road Narrowed
Northpark Drive construction crews have finished placing rebar in a 1000 foot long stretch on both sides of the entrance to Kings Mill. They will begin pouring concrete there on Monday, 9/16/24 at 3 AM. Concrete trucks will enter and leave the construction zone approximately every six minutes.
Because workers will spread the concrete next to the inbound lanes, traffic will be reduced to one lane until approximately 1 PM. However, both inbound lanes should open for the evening rush hour.
At this time, the construction team has scheduled additional concrete pours for 9/20, 9/27, and 10/1; times and dates subject to change.
Project managers evaluated all-night and all-weekend scenarios for pouring the concrete, but encountered legal restrictions having to do with worker safety and/or cost.
Back-and-Forth Paving Plan
The general plan is for crews to pour one side of one stretch of the road while prepping the other. After they finish the new middle lanes, the old outer lanes will be demolished one side at a time. They will reroute traffic to the middle lanes will reconstructing the old lanes.
At this point, neither inbound nor outbound traffic will be shut down completely, though it will narrow to one lane on the side where concrete is being poured.
More Visible Progress
Ralph De Leon, the project manager, emphasized that most of the wrinkles that the project experienced in the last year have been ironed out at this point. However, one small snag remains re: a switch of fire hydrants and buildings with commercial sprinkler systems on the north side of Northpark.
Several companies and a church are migrating to the City of Houston water system, and it’s apparently taking longer than expected for the City’s billing and meter installation department to catch up with the new infrastructure installation. Worst case: some businesses may get free water for a month or so.
De Leon asked for patience. “People don’t see all the work that’s going on underground, but that’s the real heavy part of the lift,” he said. “People will begin to see a lot more progress on Monday. The above-ground ‘flat work’ that everyone sees goes much faster.”
Major Steps After This
The area between the Diversion Ditch and Russell Palmer Road will be paved as part of Phase II, which includes everything up to and a little bit past Woodland Hills Drive.
Paving crews will next complete the new lanes between Russell Palmer and 494.
Next, paving crews will turn their attention to 494.
Finally, crews will begin work west to US59.
The entry ponds will likely be among the last things completed.
In my last post, I alluded to a total shutdown of Northpark while UnionPacific installed new beds and track across the road. Originally scheduled for sometime in October or November, that will now happen in January or February.
It’s too early to tell when bridge construction over 494 will commence.
For More Information
For schematic diagrams of the paving plan, click here.
As paving moves east to west, crossovers will need to close temporarily. To see the schedule, click here.
For a three-week look-ahead schedule, visit the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority website.
Also, see these posts on ReduceFlooding for a history of the project:
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/13/24
2572 Days since Hurricane Harvey