The city of Manvel in partnership with Brazoria County Conservation and Reclamation District No. 3, Brazoria Drainage District No. 4 and Brazoria Drainage District No. 5 on June 21 broke ground on the Manvel Drainage Pond, according to a Manvel news release. The project will be broken into two phases.
“This is evidence of just some of the amazing things to expect from the city and our drainage districts when we all collaborate,” Manvel Assistant City Manager Dan Johnson said. “When we work together, we can accomplish great things for the residents of Manvel and for our city as a whole.”
Phase 1 of the Manvel Drainage Pond will cost $500,000 and is estimated to be completed in the third quarter of 2023, Manvel Public Information Officer Brooke Cyphers told Community Impact Newspaper.
The project's two phases include a dry pond phase, Phase 1, which will create detention and flood plain mitigation capacity. Phase 2 will convert the dry pond into a wet pond, and this phase will be publicly bid by contractors at a later date, Cyphers said. The drainage districts are assisting with the construction portion of Phase 1, she added.
A drainage pond is a constructed depression that receives and stores stormwater runoff from a specific drainage area, according to the release.
The city of Manvel said stretches of Hwy. 6 within the city were impassable for several days during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Hwy. 6 is Manvel’s main thoroughfare and is also designated as a hurricane evacuation route, according to the release.
The city identified possible solutions to the ponding issue in 2020 and purchased 117 acres of land near the intersection of Masters Road and Jordan Road. The Manvel Drainage Pond when complete will be able to store 1,000 acre-feet of storage capacity.
