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September 2005
On September 19, 2005, Mr. John Jaubik (on behalf of the Ditch Steering Committee)
conveyed to the Board the Committee's recommendation regarding a solution
and path forward for rectifying the standing-water problems being experienced
in the ditch-sections of Sienna MUD No. 2. The Committee recommended
an alternative (Primary Collector Option) that will provide additional
elevation drop and increase the slopes available to keep water moving
through to the system's multiple outfall points. As this is stated,
the Board wants to be very clear that the drainage system as it exists
today works quite well with regard to handling extremely large rainfall
events and preventing flooding. The problems that exist within the system
are limited to handling drainage issues at the other end of the spectrum
- the elimination of standing water from the ditches.
After receiving the recommendation from Mr. Jakubik along with some engineering input from Mr. Tom Ramsey (with our third-party engineers - Klotz & Associates), the Board scheduled a special meeting for September 30, 2005. For the special meeting, Klotz & Associates were asked to perform the necessary work to take the conceptual alternative chosen by the Committee to a higher level of engineering detail so that budgetary and implementation issues could be more fully discussed. At the September 30 meeting, these issues were discussed and the Board approved a motion to authorize Klotz & Associates to proceed with detail engineering of the Primary Collector Option. Contracts for Klotz to perform that work were requested to be presented for approval at the October 17th board meeting.
Specifically, the Primary
Collector Option includes the construction of a piped storm sewer
system in the North-South corridors within Steep Bank West to
provide for as much as 24 inches of additional elevation drop
to the system's various outfall points. The piped storm sewer
will result in shallow swales with area inlets (see example picture
below) that will collect rainfall and channel it into the piped
system.
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By adding this additional elevation drop in the North-South corridors,
the East-West drainage ditches (which flow into the North-South corridors)
can be re-graded to benefit from this additional slope. There will also
be some re-setting of culverts (under driveways) which were set improperly
during initial construction. In these cases, the culverts were set with
either a flat or a reverse slope that impeded the flow of water. With
regard to the cul-de-sac areas in Steep Bank East and Steep Bank West,
the Board is continuing to look at the options available to remedy those
drainage problems and that are complimentary to the work described above.
In addition to the work above, the Board will also be working to address the
situations where water stands in the culverts underneath driveways.
This situation predominantly exists as a result of a design code requirement,
from the City of Missouri City, that stipulated the minimum culvert
diameter be not less than 24”. This size pipe required that many
of the culverts through-out the ditch-sections be counter-sunk below
the ditch’s designed flowline elevation. Had the bottom of the
24” culvert pipe been installed at the ditch’s designed
flowline elevation, it would have resulted in driveways not being level
with the streets. To the extent it does not impede the flow of water
in an extreme rain event; the Board is planning to fill in these counter-sunk
culverts to match the ditch’s flowline elevation.
This work is estimated to begin in August, 2006. The exact start date
will be decided based on weather conditions closer to that time. There
are several options with regard to how the work might be phased and
the Board will continue to work through those options to come up with
the most effective/efficient plan that has the least disruption to the
community. In the interim, the Board will be going through the legally
required public advertising process to prepare the bid documents, qualify
the contractors and to accept bids for the work. This should enable
the Board to evaluate the bids and execute contracts well before the
planned start date mentioned above.
The final aspect of the Ditch Steering Committee’s charter had
to do with finding a third-party legal counsel that would evaluate the
legal issues and determine whether or not there were any parties that
could be held legally responsible for the situation as it exists. The
Board has directed our third-party counsel, Bracewell & Guiliani,
to undertake efforts to begin the process of pursuing appropriate remedies.
In anticipation of possible legal proceedings, this is all that can
be communicated at this time about this aspect of the project.
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Download final public meeting presentation