A presentation on the Drainage Area Master Plan, including information on the hydrologic and hydraulic modeling that will be used to determine flood-prone areas in the city, was discussed during the meeting.
“Once we have all of those flood plains established once all the streams are modeled, that will inform the foundation, the basis for really what we're trying to do with this project, which is develop a bunch of regional but mitigation projects,” said Garrett Johnston, modeling task leader with Freese and Nichols.
In 2020 the city was awarded $1.11 million in grant funds from the Texas Water Development Board as part of the Flood Infrastructure Fund grant program to allow the Drainage Area Master Plan to be conducted, according to the city of New Braunfels. The project began Sept. 21 and is anticipated to be completed in early 2025.
“The purpose of [the hydrologic and hydraulic modeling] is to get a general sense of what's going on, both in areas way outside the way up upstream of the city limits and also downstream,” Johnston said. “Because again, this was funded by the [Texas] Water Development Board; they're interested in kind of getting a more holistic picture.”
The program aims to produce regional modeling and recommend potential drainage solutions that the city of New Braunfels could implement to improve drainage. Ultimately, the Drainage Area Master Plan results would support long-range planning to reduce flood risk and capital project coordination with other departments.
Kim Patak, drainage master plan project manager for Freese and Nichols, said the plan will study existing land use and impervious cover in addition to drainage conditions for future land development.
“What we're looking for from the city planning purposes is the ultimate land use condition,” Patak said. “So over time, how the land would ultimately develop. So as you're deciding infrastructure, when we're putting in a new system, we're making sure that it already takes into account upstream development that's coming in.”
The city of New Braunfels has provided existing drainage studies and concerns to the engineering firm Freese and Nichols to perform the necessary engineering work for the project. Surrounding cities, counties and other stakeholders have also been asked to provide any pertinent flood or drainage information to assist in the study.
“As you can see, it's not a fast process,” said Elliot Poduska, drainage master plan assistant project manager with Freese and Nichols. “It takes a lot of time to gather information, get models and really sift through the data that we get from other agencies and make sure it's a good solid model, and we get some good solid projects out of it.”
The public is encouraged to share their experiences with flooding events and flooding problems with city officials. The community's responses will be considered. Residents can report drainage, erosion and maintenance issues at www.nbtexas.org/3492/Drainage.
