North Texas saw the formal groundbreaking on a project to improve the Trinity River floodway in Dallas on June 7.
The project involves raising certain sections of the levees along the river by two to six feet and reducing the slope on some portions along the 23-mile network of barriers that hold back floodwaters.
Existing pump stations will be renovated, and a new pump station will be built close to the western portion of the existing levee system on the south side of the river. The pumping station will improve drainage situations in Ledbetter and Eagle Ford.
Currently, the floodway allows for about 226,000 cubic feet per second of water flow. Raising the levee will facilitate a 22.6% increase in the water flow, enabling the floodway to convey 277,000 cubic feet per second.
Construction on the project actually began in May and is expected to be completed in 2024. The Army Corps of Engineers Fort Worth District, which covers Dallas, is overseeing it. “Both the Corps of Engineers and the city of Dallas share a responsibility of public safety, and we are both committed to ensuring the integrity of this floodway,” said Col. Jonathan Stover, commander of the Army Corps Fort Worth District.
According to Sarah Standifer, the assistant director of stormwater operations with the City of Dallas, drainage improvements like this will prevent major flooding in parts of the city along the Trinity River for the next five to six decades.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, U.S. Rep Eddie Bernice Johnson thanked the Corps, and Stover for assisting local government leaders in ensuring the project came to fruition.
“Many of you will never know just how important this occasion is,” Rep. Johnson said, “but when you think of waking up and finding water up to your window line and all of your beds and couches soaked with water, versus not, then you can kind of imagine what some of this means to all of us.”
Dallas City Council members Paula Blackmon, Carolyn King Arnold, Gay Donnell Willis, and Omar Narvaez were also at the groundbreaking event, as was Araceli Correa, a 40-year resident of West Dallas. Correa said she was happy when she learned about the improvement project as her house was severely affected by flooding in 2015. “This is good for the city and the community,” she told The Dallas Morning News in Spanish.
The cost of the floodway improvement is estimated at $223 million. The federal government has provided most of the funding as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The city of Dallas will cover about 35%.
City officials said the Trinity River floodway improvement project does not require any land acquisition. However, there are plans to install levees in the southern portions of the city, and according to the Corps’ technical lead for the Trinity River projects, Sarvi Ashraf, residential and commercial properties could be affected by that project.
Ashraf said it is unclear if the extension project will require the acquisition of developed lands but that the city might have to work on acquiring land and property needed for the extension from residents and business owners. Ashraf, however, added that the Corps is working with partners in Dallas to “minimize the impact as much as possible.”
