Friendswood City Council approves engineer for utility bridge relocation

Friendswood City Council approved an engineer Nov. 2 for a drainage-related project on Clear Creek.

Council voted unanimously, with one absent, to allow engineering firm Kimley Horn and Associates to relocate a utility bridge that carries waterlines over Clear Creek near the Blackhawk Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant. The bridge will be demolished and the water lines moved underground, officials said.

The bridge has several erosion issues near its base, prompting the need for the demolition and relocation, Deputy Engineering Director Samantha Haritos said. Recent storms have made the erosion worse.

“I don’t know if y’all have been out there, but Tropical Storm Beta eroded it considerably,” she said.

The work will be funded with $1.1 million from a $2.7 million Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery grant Friendswood was awarded earlier this year, according to a city memo.

The bridge is popular spot for children to spray graffiti and play around, council members said.

“We’re looking for a pretty quick turnaround,” Mayor Mike Foreman said. “We’d like to get this thing engineered, constructed [and] buried before those kids come back out there in the spring and look for something to swing on.”

In other business

Friendswood City Council also approved the second and final readings of ordinances related to a curfew and rezoning land to make way for a planned unit development.