Tag Archive for: repairs

Harvey Repair, Rebuild Assistance Still Available for Harris County Residents

Assistance is still available for those who live in Harris County if you have not yet repaired or rebuilt your home damaged in Hurricane Harvey. Applications are NOT for reimbursement.

They are for repairs and rehab handled through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) contractors, that meet HUD specs. So forget about marble floors and countertops, adding garages or extra bedrooms, or upgrading to top-of-the-line appliances.

As long as you live in Harris County and you meet the requirements, you can still submit an application. However, understand that Harris County (compared to the City) has far more funding available than applications in its pipeline. Also understand that you can apply through the Texas General Land Office (GLO), which now handles applications for HUD; you don’t need to go through the City or County directly.

Lloyd Nelms and family receive the keys to a rebuilt home.

Types of Help Available

The GLO can provide homeowner assistance through:

  • Repairing and rehabilitating homes
  • Reconstruction
  • Improving a damaged home so that it is more resilient against natural disasters
  • Elevating homes above flood level

How to Apply

How and where to apply depends on whether you live inside the City of Houston or out.

If you live in Harris County but OUTSIDE the City of Houston:
  1. Apply online here.
  2. Download and complete a paper application below. Applications can be submitted by email at harriscounty.glo@recovery.texas.gov or mail to Homeowner Assistance Program 2100 Space Park Drive, Suite 104, Houston, TX 77058. 
  3. Call 346-222-4686 or 1-866-317-1998 (toll free) and a regional office team member will assist with the application process.
If you live in Harris and are INSIDE the City of Houston:

This page explains all the necessary steps and documents: https://recovery.texas.gov/hap/houston. You also have three easy options.

  1. Apply online here.
  2. Download and complete a paper application below. Applications can be submitted by email at houston.glo@recovery.texas.gov or mail to Homeowner Assistance Program 2100 Space Park Drive, Suite 104, Houston, TX 77058. 
  3. Call 346-222-4686 or 1-866-317-1998 (toll free) and a regional office team member will assist with the application process.

All Documents Necessary Before Apps Will Be Processed

Applications, including all necessary documentation, must be completed and submitted BEFORE the GLO and its partners will begin processing it for eligibility. Each application submitted must be individually evaluated to determine eligibility. Please use this checklist for reference whether you live inside or outside of the City.

Without enough qualified applicants, GLO will be forced to send the money back to Washington. So hurry, before the money goes away or runs out.

What to Expect

Potential applicants can watch this video about What to Expect.

The GLO created this video about homeowners who received assistance through this program. Here’s another showing a homeowner who just received keys to a rebuilt home.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/15/2021

1295 Days since Hurricane Harvey

HCFCD Starts More Repairs on Taylor Gully

Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has begun a three-month repair project on Taylor Gully near Maple Bend Drive in Kingwood’s Woodstream Forest. The repairs will extend 750 feet upstream and 1500 feet downstream of Maple Bend. The entire length of the project lies within a man-made channel and does NOT extend into the natural area on the northeast. See below.

Orange line indicates approximate extent of repair project. Image courtesy of Google Earth. Water flows toward the upper right.

This work activity will have no effect on wetlands; threatened or endangered species or their habitats; cultural or historic resources; or rookeries.

Looking upstream from Maple Bend. Photo taken 1/19/2021.
Looking downstream across Maple Bend bridge toward next phase of project, which will stop before the woods. Note outfall replacement pipe stored on right bank in distance. Photo taken 1/19/2021.

Purpose of Project

The purpose: to repair erosion and side-slope failures; repair or replace outfalls; rectify flowlines; and rehabilitate existing backslope swale systems.

  • Erosion repairs include the placement of fill material, placement of 3″x5″ granular fill and the placement of grade #1 riprap.
  • Channel cross sections will be restored to the original design where feasible.
  • The oldest recorded drawing on file is for the proposed channels from Elm Grove Village to White Oak Creek completed in March 1982. Record drawings typically show a 6-foot wide channel bottom with 3:1 side slopes.

Several homes in this neighborhood flooded during Imelda when water backed up into streets. While the rainfall amounts exceeded the capacity of storm drains, damaged outfalls could also have contributed to such backups. So restoring damaged outfalls will help reduce flood risk.

The earthwork will consist of installation of granular fill and Grade 1 riprap below the ordinary high-water mark. Sediment will be excavated to contour channel side slopes and bottom dimensions to match previously rectified conditions.

Start of side slope repairs. Photo taken 1/19/2021.

Previous Repair History

HCFCD record drawings show a general repair project on G103-80-03.1 in July 2012. According to HCFCD records, an emergency repair on the baffle structure on G103-80-03.1 was completed in October of 2019.

Baffle previously repaired after Imelda. Photo taken 1/19/2021. The structure required an emergency repair due to significant erosion and a rip-rap dam that had formed, severely blocking flow.

Such baffles slow the flow of stormwater to enable the channel downstream of the structure to drain efficiently, according to Beth Walters, a spokesperson for HCFCD.

Taylor Gully was twice severely damaged by excessive flow from Woodridge Village upstream at the Montgomery County Line in 2019. The new development flooded severely on May 7 and September 19 when sheet flow from heavy rains poured into the gully before Woodridge Village’s detention ponds were completed. This is the second major repair project since then. The first extended from the county line to near West Lake Houston Parkway.

Taylor Gully repairs from Maple Bend Bridge on 1/19/2021

Utility Crossings

Utilities along this reach of Taylor Gully (G103-80-03.1) include natural gas, telecommunication, electric, sanitary sewer and water. The CenterPoint gas line, telephone line, and water line all cross the channel at Maple Bend Drive. A 10” sanitary sewer line crosses the channel at the downstream end of the project.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/19/2021 with thanks to Beth Walters, Harris County Flood Control District

1239 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 488 since Imelda

More West Lake Houston Parkway Bridge Repairs Scheduled

This post is a bit off topic but it does relate to Hurricane Harvey. Harvey damaged the West Lake Houston Parkway bridge. So you can add this to the list of the area’s damages from Harvey.

Houston Public Works will conduct its final 5-month-long bridge repair project on the West Lake Houston Parkway Bridge beginning Monday, August 3. The project consists of repairing bents 25-28 underneath the bridge. 

What is a Bent?

A “bent” is the combination of the cap and piles. They act as supports for the entire bridge. Here’s an easy-to-read and well illustrated primer on bridge inspection that describes the purpose of bents. (See photo below of the West Lake Houston Parkway Bridge bents.)

Bents underneath the West Lake Houston Parkway Bridge. Photo taken 9/16/2018, one year after Harvey. Note the flood debris still caught in the bents. This is a random photo and not intended to show the damaged bents.

Cost More than $4 Million

The cost of the project is $4,385,197 and will be funded through the Dedicated Drainage and Street Renewal Fund. The contractor for the project is NBG Contracting, Inc. The work is expected to be completed by Saturday, January 9, weather permitting.

Road Closures and Schedule

On Monday, August 3, work will begin at 7:00 a.m. by closing the outer lanes of the bridge. Two-way traffic will be maintained on the inner lanes. Construction activities are expected to take place Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Crews will occasionally work from Sunday at 5:00 p.m. though Monday at 5:00 a.m. when work requires closure of one side of the bridge. During these occasional work hours, pedestrian sidewalks along both sides of the bridge will be barricaded and closed for safety.

Please be aware of flagmen and orange traffic cones in place on-site assisting with traffic flow through the construction zone. All lanes of the bridge and pedestrian sidewalks will reopen following the completion of the project on Saturday, January 9, weather permitting.

This project follows the completion of repairs done by Houston Public Works this spring and the temporary repairs last October after three bearing pads slipped from their concrete beams. The work completed this month are the final repairs needed for the bridge to ensure the longevity of the infrastructure. 

For more information, please contact Mayor Pro Tem Martin’s office at (832) 393-3008 or via email at districte@houstontx.gov.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/21/2020 with thanks to Josh Alberson for piloting the boat

1057 Days after Hurricane Harvey

City Completes Repairs on Tree Lane Bridge, But Concerns Remain

The City of Houston has completed repairs on the Tree Lane Bridge over Ben’s Branch…at least for now. The City partially concreted a wing wall and placed riprap in the stream bed to help reduce erosion and scour. However, the root cause of the damage remains. Upstream development without adequate detention is funneling more and more water into Ben’s Branch. The higher volume will continue to contribute to scouring and erosion in major storms unless detention ponds upstream are built and fixed.

Water Under the Bridge

As I struggled to understand what I was looking at, an online search revealed this excellent 196-page, well-illustrated document. It’s titled “AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE FOR MONITORING AND PROTECTING BRIDGE WATERWAYS AGAINST SCOUR.” Robert Ettema, Tatsuaki Nakato, and Marian Muste from the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa produced it for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

It begins with a maxim: “Person who overlooks water under bridge will find bridge under water.”

The document points out that bridge engineers often assume that a stream channel will maintain its course and dimensions. But most channels adjust their alignment and shape in response to floods and land-use changes in their watersheds. That has happened on Ben’s Branch in recent years.

“Channel changes sometimes have severe consequences for bridge waterways,” say the authors.

Scour and Progressive Degradation

A review of the entire paper reveals two types of destructive forces at work on the Tree Lane Bridge.

Long-term scour is one. It occurs over a time scale of several years, and usually includes progressive degradation and lateral bank erosion due to channel widening or meander migration.

Progressive degradation is another. It features the almost permanent lowering of the river bed at a bridge site owing to changes in the watershed [e.g., head-cut progression (head-cutting), or human activities (e.g., channel straightening or urbanization)]. 

The area around the Tree Lane bridge supports has been badly eroding for years. A 12-inch water line that was once buried 5 feet below the stream bed is now at the water surface. See below.

How the area downstream from the bridge looked in December before repairs started.

Scour and erosion under and around bridges are constant problems for engineers. This bridge is a great example. Any time a structure interrupts the flow of floodwater, it creates turbulence (vortices in the flow) that can lead to erosion.

From “AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE FOR MONITORING AND PROTECTING BRIDGE WATERWAYS AGAINST SCOUR.”

During Harvey, scour destabilized the Union Pacific and US59 bridges across the West Fork. Both had to be replaced for safety.

The Tree Lane Bridge doesn’t appear to be to that point yet. But the heavier load placed on Ben’s Branch by new upstream developments, such as Woodridge Village, Woodridge Forest, and Brooklyn Trails, may be pushing this bridge beyond its design capacity.

Source: FEMA. Bridge constricts water flow (from top to bottom). The pressure of water stacking up behind the bridge forces the water to accelerate under the bridge, causing erosion and scour. See below.
Major storms in the last four years have eroded a large area immediately downstream from the bridge.

Concrete and Rip Rap Should Help in Short Term

To address these problems, the City repaired part of a concrete wing wall. They also placed riprap (boulders) downstream from the bridge and below a stormwater drain.

Riprap breaks up the flow of water and slows it down. This reduces erosion and scour.

Partially concreted wall (left) and riprap at Tree Lane Bridge over Ben’s Branch, Kingwood, TX. Photo courtesy of COH Public Works.
Tree Lane Bridge repairs, Kingwood, TX.
Tree Lane Bridge repairs, Kingwood, TX. Photo courtesy of COH Public Works.

…But Root Causes for Damage Remain

However, problems remain, both here and upstream.

  • That 12-inch water line could be taken out in the next flood by a tree flowing downstream. If the flood lasts for several days as it did during Harvey, the loss of water would be a major inconvenience to the residents of Bear Branch.
  • Inadequate detention upstream will continue to erode both the stream banks and bed at accelerating rates.

Until we can address the root causes of such damage, I fear that maintenance on this bridge will be a constant, long-term issue…despite the City’s best intentions.

Slabs of concrete still lean against water main.
In extreme event, water could still get behind concrete repair and peel it away from bank.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/31/2020

945 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.

HCFCD Launches Channel Repair Projects in Walden on Lake Houston and Kingwood

Yesterday, a reader, Donna Hanna Dewhirst, sent me pictures of a dredging operation beginning in the channel that cuts through Walden on Lake Houston. Today, I photographed it from the air.

Walden Project Kicks Off

That’s the Walden Mouth Bar in the distance. So far, though, dredging activity has focused upstream near the country club.
HCFCD classifies the project as a repair, though it is not yet listed on HCFCD’s repair page for this area. Photo by Donna Hannah Dewhirst.
De-watering the spoils before transport. Photo by Donna Hannah Dewhirst.

Typically, in a project with wet dirt like this, contractors “de-water” it by letting it drain on the banks for a while. Once dry, they haul it away. HCFCD sent dirt from Ben’s Branch to a cleaning facility to ensure they weren’t transporting any dangerous bacteria or organisms living in the mud. From there, it’s reused in landscaping and other projects.

Reverse angle, looking upstream toward excavation in background on left.

Reader Jeff Bayless volunteered, “This is called Rogers Gully and drains a large part of Atascocita. This is actually the 2nd time they have removed sediment from this location. They finished the first round right before Imelda and lined the banks with riprap and fresh top soil further upstream all the way to Framingham Road. Had it looking good then Imelda hit and washed all their new soil back into the downstream parts by the County Club. This also made the mouthbar in the lake larger and shallower. My fear with the large mouthbar is if Atascocita gets a Kingwood May 7 type flash flood, the mouthbar will push drainage water into the homes along this gully. Hopefully the mouthbar removal is a real project that will happen before flooding occurs.”

Series of Ditch Repairs Begins in Kingwood

Work on Ben’s Branch is now approximately 50% complete, according to Beth Walters of HCFCD.

Meanwhile, more channel repairs have started in Kingwood within the last few weeks. They consist primarily of erosion and outfall pipe repairs. Repairs are so numerous, HCFCD had to group them into a a series of smaller projects to expedite bidding and repairs. The project include:

  • G103-41-00-X008: Two damage sites (5622 and 5622A) consisting of slope erosion, toe line repair, and channel scour.
  • G103-38-00-X020: Three damage sites (5416, 5680, and 5682) consisting of bank sloughing and erosion repair.
  • G103-38-01-X014: A series of voids on the southern side of the channel. One void is very large and the concrete paving has begun buckling. Another void is above an outfall pipe that will need to be replaced. Access is limited and encroachments are present.
  • G103-38-00-X021: Slope erosion has progressed and will eventually begin to affect the concrete channel lining. Also, some sediment has built-up and needs to be removed.
  • G103-38-01-X010: One damage site consisting of slope erosion.

To see the locations of these channels, zoom waaaaay in on the map.

Funding for most of these repairs comes from NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service), which is part of the US Department of Agriculture.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/13/2020 with photos from Donna Hannah Dewhirst

899 Days since Hurricane Harvey

City of Houston Intends to Waive Permit Fees for Homes Affected by Flooding May 7-9

Houston City Council Member Dave Martin announced Saturday that Mayor Sylvester Turner has agreed to waive permit fees for the hundreds of residents affected by flooding during the heavy rains during the week of May 7. Details still need to be worked out. More news to follow soon. This is a pleasant development for people whose homes and possessions were destroyed. Every little bit helps! Permit fees are certainly more than the price of peanuts.

Storm damage in Elm Grove where at least 196 homes flooded.

Posted by Bob Rehak on May 19, 2019

628 Days since Hurricane Harvey