MEETING WITH GALVESTON CITY MANAGER
June 18, 2004
Present: WGIPOA: Jerry Mohn; Kathie Harty, Sea Isle; John Brick, Jamaica Beach
City: Jackie Cole, Council Member; Brandon Wade, Director Public Utilities; Eric Wilson, Public Utilities
TEXDOT: Jose Ramirez, Area Engineer; Elie Alkouhry, Engineer
Consultants: CivilTech Engineering: Melvin Spinks, President; Dick Kraus, V.P.
The purpose of the meeting was to review the Drainage or Hydraulics Study Report of FM 3005 from San Luis Pass to the Seawall. The study was performed by CivilTech Engineering, Inc.
The good news is that FM 3005 will be elevated in certain sections and drainage areas will be improved. The bad news is that due to the length in obtaining permits, construction most likely will not begin until late 2005 or early 2006.
The study identified 40 drainage outfall ditches that drained mostly to the Gulf in which 14 of these outfall ditches carry water away from the highway. They identified 58 cross drainage structures and most are filled with sand and debris. The consultants created models to check capacity of all the ditches. The study recommends 16 of the 40 ditches are undersized, have inadequate conveyance capacity, and need to be enlarged. The study also recommended all ditches to be regularly maintained. In addition, the study recommended on all outfall ditches that it was necessary to obtain easements for the State to maintain. Of the culverts and drainage structures along the highway, 17 are undersized and have less than 10 year flood capacity. They evaluated the weather conditions affecting FM 3005 in the event 10 inches of rain occurred once in every 50 years.
Two areas of concern were Jamaica Beach and Karankawa Beach. The report indicated "These areas suffer from inadequate roadside swales and driveway culverts that are either buried or non-existent. The recommended solution here is a maintenance program that will re-grade the roadside swales and reset the driveway culverts to provide positive drainage pathways to the cross culverts and outfall ditches". Two major outfall ditches for each area are necessary, which will improve the drainage for Karankawa and Jamaica Beach.
Of the 18.2 miles of FM 3005, the roadside swales (ditches) parallel or adjacent to the highway are not uniform and inconsistent. The swales need to be dug out to have one level that will drain the water to the outfall ditches, which are perpendicular to the highway. To connect to the outfall ditches, culverts or cross ditches are necessary and most now are blocked or inadequate or undersized. The sloping of the swales is important to make certain the drainage goes to the Bay.
Of the 40 outfall ditches that should drain to the Bay, 9 are TEXDOT, 5 are City, and the remainder is on private property. The current outfall drainage is not adequate to drain the water. It will be necessary to obtain easements for the outfalls on the private property and this will take time.
Tidally influenced ditches are a problem and a real solution to handle this was not available.
As far as elevating FM 3005, 8.52 miles were recommended to elevate 1.5 feet for a 10 year protection ( flooding occurs once every 10 years) to handle a storm surge of 6.8 feet and 3.16 miles are elevated ½ feet for a 5 year level of protection (flooding once every 5 years) to handle a storm surge of 5.7 feet.
The report indicated "maintenance work in the roadside swales, cross culverts and outfall ditches can produce or eliminate most drainage issues along FM 3005. Select cross culverts need to be replaced or added pipes installed, certain outfall ditches need to be enlarged, and roadside culverts need to be reset to coincide with re-graded roadside swales".
TEXDOT plans to:
We were very encouraged at the meeting in that a program is now underway to improve the evacuation of the West End during storm events that will enable residents to exist the Island without fear of flooding of FM 3005. In addition, subdivisions that incur flooding as a result of poor drainage of FM 3005 will be able top see better drainage from the Gulf to the Bay.
The City of Galveston has a proposed Master Drainage Plan that will definitely tie in with the TEXDOT proposal. The West End needs to support the City on the proposed Master Drainage Plan.