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Brays Bayou Master Plan


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47 minutes ago, hindesky said:

I used to ride this trail all the time but since they started construction on it a while back I rarely go west of Main St. Hopefully they finish soon.

Is it that bad? I was planning to go that way next weekend.

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@ekdrm2d1 I don’t think that will all be concrete, I think they are planting the same kind of brush down that way that they already have in the bayou if you go back towards TMC. At least that was my understanding based on the project plans. Yes, there will be a concrete path but the rest should be new green.

 

and yes that area sucks when on your bike.

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  • 3 months later...

Flood protection project approved for Harris County

https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/news/newstalk-texas/?Item=23229

Quote

 

HOUSTON – The city council will give 13 acres in Meyerland to the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) for the construction of three interconnected detention basins. 

The $1.2 million project will provide about 30 acre-feet of detention for diverting storm water and flood mitigation. 

 

HCFCD will design and construct the basins along Brays Bayou at I-610 and South Braeswood Blvd.

 

Construction will start in December and wrap up April 2020. 

 

Real Estate Center Senior Data Analyst Joshua Roberson took a closer look at how flooding in Meyerland has affected the neighborhood's housing market in "Ebb and Flow: A Geographic Look at Houston's Stormy History." He was interviewed about his findings on the Real Estate Red Zone podcast.

 

 

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I was curious...

 

30 acre feet = 9775542 gallons.

 

which isn't really helpful. 

 

does this mean that houses that got 3 feet of water during Harvey are going to get 2 feet of water next time?

 

or does it mean that houses that got 2 feet of water during Allison are going to get 1 foot 6 inches of water next time?

 

at least it's only a 1.2 million project, and hopefully means more park area to be used in the area?

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It's very difficult to generalize, since each flood event is different.  For example, at my house in Woodland Heights we got water all the way up to the front steps during Allison (how it didn't get into the garage remains a mystery); during Harvey it only came halfway up the front yard, but it came up and went down twice.  According to very old neighbors Allison had more flooding in our neighborhood than during the mega floods of the 1930s.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Oh snap! They took down the bridge! 

 

This part of the trail, and a bit further down where they are extending/reworking it towards 610, has taken so long. I don't really understand it since with this bridge they have been slowly working on it since July. Crazy the amount of work they are doing on this bayou, you have this bridge and the pathway and then on Macgregor you have the same type of construction going on. The new design of the bridges are supposed to help with flooding, and there will be walk/bike path components to both.   

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1 hour ago, X.R. said:

Oh snap! They took down the bridge! 

 

This part of the trail, and a bit further down where they are extending/reworking it towards 610, has taken so long. I don't really understand it since with this bridge they have been slowly working on it since July. Crazy the amount of work they are doing on this bayou, you have this bridge and the pathway and then on Macgregor you have the same type of construction going on. The new design of the bridges are supposed to help with flooding, and there will be walk/bike path components to both.   

My biggest issue with these new bridges is that they are still being built at-grade. Instead they should be built up by another 10-15ft or so. While they might assist with the flood problem they will still flood themselves during a large flood event.

Edited by Luminare
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36 minutes ago, Toopicky said:

 

So will the surrounding areas so no one could use it anyway ....besides , to elevate it 10-15 feet would require extensive road realignments and possibly imminent domain confiscation of property.

 

...and?

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2 hours ago, Luminare said:

My biggest issue with these new bridges is that they are still being built at-grade. Instead they should be built up by another 10-15ft or so. While they might assist with the flood problem they will still flood themselves during a large flood event.

 

At least some of them (Greenbriar and Buffalo Speedway for sure) are being built higher than the former bridges, in addition to being longer and having fewer piers.

 

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Thats probably the most important part of the rebuilds. They are widening the ditch from the concrete up so that it will hold more water and the bridge structure won't hold back water nearly as much as the old bridges. They are also doing this  at Ardmore east of 288 and will be widening this side all the way to Calhoun where it goes natural.

This will all help in bottlenecks on the bayou that slow the flow and raise the elevation of the water behind the old bottlenecks. I still have issues with 288 and the bottleneck it creates on the Brays. I don't know why they didn't figure out a way to go over MacGregor when they first built this freeway. It always goes under during heavy flooding.

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On 10/18/2019 at 11:33 AM, samagon said:

I was curious...

 

30 acre feet = 9775542 gallons.

 

which isn't really helpful. 

 

does this mean that houses that got 3 feet of water during Harvey are going to get 2 feet of water next time?

 

or does it mean that houses that got 2 feet of water during Allison are going to get 1 foot 6 inches of water next time?

 

at least it's only a 1.2 million project, and hopefully means more park area to be used in the area?

It means that there is storage for 30 acre feet, which could do any number of things. At its most basic, it means 30 acres could have 1 less foot of water in the next flood event. In any case, more storage is always good.

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On 11/11/2019 at 7:07 PM, Ross said:

It means that there is storage for 30 acre feet, which could do any number of things. At its most basic, it means 30 acres could have 1 less foot of water in the next flood event. In any case, more storage is always good.

 

thanks for the explanation!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sad that people can mistake this construction for various places along the Bayou because of how long this has taken.

 

Its kind of ruined these "hundreds of miles" of bike paths the city likes to talk about. Yesterday was a beautiful day to be on the bike, and met 6 or 7 people who were like "uhh we can't ride the Bayou because every mile or two there is more construction." The old-houston slow construction doesn't make much sense when you have 40 story multi-family going up in a year and a half. Just wish this would be finished soon so people can get the flood relief they deserve and the old bike system can go back to normal.

 

Also, one of the construction workers that helped with the bayou expansion by the Cistern by buffalo bayou was saying the greenery they are planting there will be more of what will be seen over here. 

Edited by X.R.
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I know how frustrating it is for the bike paths to be blocked , but the work that is being done on the bayou will have a much more positive affect on the neighborhoods that front the bayou, and hopefully mitigate some of the flooding that occurs regularly. Once these projects are finished everything will be much better. With the addition of another detention pond on Brays at 610 this should really help in the recurring flood issues and I'm sure that the landscaping and bike trails will be improved. I know they are adding new trails east of 288 all the way to Calhoun. This is all for the good of everyone.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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15 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

2nd retention basin started.  Total of three are going there.

 

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so glad they are upgrading and making the bayous and trails so much better and even adding so many more!  very good for Houston and attracting newcomers and tourists alike.  they are thinking in the right direction using runoff water retention basins.  but, I believe that eventually, in our lifetimes, a very LARGE and deep 3rd damn (like Addicks and Barker damns only grander in scale) will be necessary.  This combined with buying out and demolishing existing homes that sit out obviously on the floodplains, and simply making those areas protected green spaces and public parks, will go a long way to keep Houston higher and drier than previous "tax day" or "1000 year" floods have done to our city.  We are a giant metropolis with tons of resources.  there is absolutely nothing stopping us from at least trying to realistically fix the constant flooding problems (the extreme ones that is...), except a pure LACK of priority and wanting to do so by those with the means to do so and the City/County/State/Federal authorities. 

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