Katy approves detention pond near Katy Park[/caption]

The city of Katy will be digging a new detention pond near Katy Park after the Katy City Council approved the measure March 27.

The detention pond on 35 acres between Morton and Franz roads on Katy Hockley Cut Off Road will be just north of the Town Park
subdivision.

The pond ties into the city’s improvements to Morton Road, which is also a detention project, city planning technician Anas Garfaoui said. The road project included the expansion of Morton from two to four lanes with a sidewalk on the south and a curb and gutter to cover up open ditches.

The funding for the new pond was approved at $2.6 million, with total costs at $3.1 million. The bid was awarded to Cooley Construction Company, based in Magnolia. The land was purchased in 2008 for the project. 

“At this time right now, all we’re doing is the functioning portion of it, which is the detention,” Garfaoui said. “Our parks department is also involved in it as far as getting the trails and that sort of thing set up.”

He said the city is envisioning making the pond like Harris County’s Katy Park, which has a detention system with trails around it.

“It’s a location where all the water moves into from your storm sewer,” Garfaoui said. “The water drains into the roads, it goes into the system and then eventually goes into what’s called a detention pond and that goes into a regional system.”

Garfaoui said he estimates the project will get a start date in about 60 days when contracts come through. Once started, the project should take about three or four months, he said.

“It’s part of what we do as part of the drainage projects every year, but this was planned and designed prior to the flooding event [of April 2016],” Garfaoui said.