HOUSTON – For years, there’s been talk about how widening Brays Bayou would offer relief for the scores of frustrated Southwest Houston residents living near the Bayou whose homes have flooded time and time again.
Heavy rains last week was another rude reminder that things just haven’t been moving fast enough, residents said.
“It's just frustrating Mayor when you live in the heart of it and wake up in the morning and your feet are wet,” resident Sheldon Weisfeld said.
Weisfeld said he wanted Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to feel his anger, even after the mayor announced city leaders were going to rubber stamp an agreement to fast track the long awaited Project Brays.
The city intends to borrow $43 million from the Texas Water Development Board and turn it over to the Harris County Flood Control District to help pay for bridge replacements and extensions and channel widening in the Brays watershed.
“In the absence of the city borrowing the $43 million, there's no question that this project would be completed in 21 or 22 or 23. So now we have certainty -- we have certainty that this project will be completed,” Turner said.
It’s significant because it marks an end to the delays of a project that started decades ago.
“It's just wonderful. The bayous get wider, that will help, the city is going to put in more detention ponds, that will help,” Bruce Krewinghaus said.
Once Project Brays is complete, hundreds of homes will be taken out of the flood plain, but about 1500 homes will remain in it.
“I think it's a show. We're the fourth largest city in the nation, the host city to the Super Bowl, growing rapidly and we can't manage water,” Weisfeld said.
The plan
Councilwoman Ellen Cohen said, “At the mayor’s behest to expedite these needed drainage improvements, the Texas Water Development Board has agreed to loan the City of Houston $46 million. If approved by City Council, the city will then advance the funding to the (Harris County Flood Control District) to assist in construction to improve Brays Bayou. Once the project is complete, the HCFCD will be reimbursed this funding by the federal government, and will in turn repay the loan to the City of Houston.”
Similar funding agreements are planned to promote upgrades for White Oak Bayou and Hunting Bayou at an estimated cost of $130 million in total for all three bayous.
[WATCH: Flooding exchange between Mayor Turner, residents]
Brays Bayou is expected to be completed first as the project has already received federal approval and the engineering work has been done, Turner said.
Hunting and White Oaks Bayous will follow, pending congressional approval and a separate agreement with the Flood Control District.
The total cost of all three projects is estimated at $130 million.
"These projects will greatly reduce the flood threats for residents along these bayous and remove hundreds of properties out of the 100-year floodplain," Turner said.
Turner was joined by Judge Ed Emmett, Harris County Flood Control District members and Houston City Council members to discuss long-awaited improvements to flood-prone areas in the city and how the improvements would be funded.
"I went to Bellaire High School, It didn't used to flood like this. Something is fundamentally wrong, and we need to fix it. That's what this morning is all about," Emmett said.
The executive director of Harris County Flood Control District, Russ Poppe, said the channel work is estimated to be completed in two and a half years. Improvements to the eight bridges are estimated to be completed by 2021.
In a separate and unrelated move, the city is also studying potential improvements to Keegans Bayou, a Brays Bayou tributary, which exceeded its banks during last week’s heavy rain. The analysis will look at options for creating additional detention and improving channel flow.