More than 145 flood mitigation projects in high-flood-risk areas across Harris County will advance with secured local, state and federal funding partnerships after the unanimous approval from Harris County Commissioners as part of a restructured proposal built upon the work completed from the 2018 flood bond.

At the Sept. 18 court meeting, HCFCD Executive Director Christina Petersen addressed commissioners on the updates and debuted the new 2018 flood bond dashboard—a public website where users can find flood project schedules, funding sources, completion dates, prioritization scores, locations and lifecycles for all projects that will be updated quarterly, according to Petersen.

“We've taken the 2018 bond program, which started out really with a lot of concepts, and with the work that we have done together, with [commissioners court] teams, with all of you, with the direction that we've received and we've been able to ground this work in reality,” Petersen said. “We've been able to identify the secured partnerships that has continued to be a priority that I have heard from this court, certainly identifying and getting clarity on active projects.”

The timeline

Petersen said she anticipates between three to five years for new projects to reach completion, pending any challenges with partnership funding when it comes to large infrastructure projects, she said, adding that every flood project requires environmental clearance before construction and that takes approximately nine months.

How we got here

The update comes shy of four months after commissioners tasked the flood district in June with alleviating multiple issues with the 2018 bond program—a $2.5 billion initiative voters approved after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. At the June meeting, Petersen and commissioners addressed a multi-million-dollar funding shortfall that affected project completion.

“We are not going to be able to do all the projects that people were promised and that failure was built into the bond, and that’s disappointing,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in June.

On the other hand

HCFCD external affairs officer Emily Woodell told Community Impact the funding gap has been significantly reduced from more than $1 billion to $400 million, and sees the flood district meeting the funding need with increased partnerships in the future.

“Nationally, folks are seeing more like 25-30% increases [in infrastructure projects],” Woodell said. “So the fact that Harris County has been able to manage this massive program that was really, frankly, unprecedented to such a close percentage of overages, when you think about COVID-19 and inflation and all those different things, is pretty astounding.”

Rising costs, inflation and pandemic construction issues were factors that flood district officials said have challenged how they’re moving forward with certain projects and closing others. The following number of 2018 bond-related IDs or packages has been decided in the following categories, according to HCFCD:

  • 75 active projects
  • 26 projects paused, awaiting future funding
  • 15 determined not feasible

More project details can be found on the flood bond dashboard: www.hcfcd.org/bondprogram.

Out of the 75 active bond ID's or packages identified and approved by Harris County Commissioners, more than 145 projects can move forward from the 2018 flood bond. (Courtesy Harris County Flood Control District)
Out of the 75 active bond IDs or packages identified and approved by Harris County Commissioners, more than 145 projects can move forward from the 2018 flood bond. (Courtesy Harris County Flood Control District)

The vote

The new project dashboard was one of the motions approved by commissioners in June. Going forward, the approved proposal included making the dashboard more user-friendly and incorporating multiple languages for users.

HCFCD officials told Community Impact they have been meeting weekly with members from all commissioners' court offices to ensure projects with high priority and high needs are met. Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey voted in favor of the proposal at the Sept. 18 court meeting.

“We have done $1.5 billion worth of projects to date,” Ramsey said. “That's investments made in Harris County. That's investments made in 22 watersheds in Harris County. What we're going to talk about today, motions are going to be made, and $3.5 billion worth of projects are going to be released. They're going to be focused. It's urgent that we now move forward.”

The approved flood mitigation projects build upon the completion of more than 100 projects Harris County has undertaken by HCFCD since the 2018 bond approval, according to flood district officials, amounting to $1.5 billion, which includes:

  • 16,000+ acre feet of stormwater detention constructed in the county, such as the Inwood Forest, Baywood, Lauder and Zube stormwater basins
  • 46,000+ linear feet of channel conveyance improvements, such as the Turkey Creek, Mud Gully and Hunting Bayou Channel work
  • 5,800 acres of land acquired and preserved
  • 3,100+ people relocated from home buyouts

Also of note

At least 27 flood projects are being supported with the approved proposal, according to Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones, including:

  • Keegans Bayou in Alief
  • Cypress Ditch in Gulfton, Bellaire
  • South Mayde Creek in Katy
  • Little Cypress Creek in northwest Harris County

“Taxpayers deserve to know how every dollar is being put to work,” Briones said. “We must hold ourselves to the highest standards of transparency, accountability, and good stewardship of public funds as we build a safer, more resilient Harris County.”