Not the City of Bellaire. Official site: bellairetx.gov.

Brays Bayou flood bond projects: what they are and how to look one up

In 2018, Harris County voters said yes to a big pot of money for flood projects. Some of it goes to work on Brays Bayou, the channel that carries Bellaire's rainwater away. The Harris County Flood Control District says the Brays Bayou watershed "drains parts of the cities of Houston, Missouri City, Stafford, Bellaire, West University Place, Southside Place, and the Meadows Place." So when a Bellaire storm drain gurgles, the water is on its way to Brays.

The short version

On August 25, 2018, Harris County voters approved $2.5 billion in bonds to pay for flood damage reduction projects.
The Harris County Flood Control District calls Project Brays a multi-year, $480 million project, and it works on it with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Every bond project has an ID, such as C-11 or D512-01-00-E002, and you can search for that ID on hcfcd.org.

What the voters approved

On August 25, 2018, Harris County voters approved $2.5 billion in bonds to finance flood damage reduction projects. A bond is a loan the county takes out and pays back over time. The flood control district's bond page says the money supports a wide variety of recovery and resiliency projects. Resiliency means being able to take a hit and bounce back.

The Harris County Flood Control District is the county agency that builds and looks after drainage channels, basins and related projects. In this story we will call it the flood control district.

The watershed Bellaire belongs to

The district describes the Brays Bayou watershed as heavily urbanized, about 127 square miles in southwest Harris County and a corner of Fort Bend County, with about 121 miles of open streams. Three main streams run through it: Brays Bayou, Keegans Bayou and Willow Waterhole Bayou. Based on the 2010 Census, the district puts the population of the Harris County part of the watershed at 717,198 people. Bellaire's 17,000 or so residents are a small share of that, but every one of them lives on land that drains to Brays.

The three names on the Brays list

The district's Brays Bayou page lists many projects. Three of them are on the bond list and matter most to this story.

C-11 is Project Brays. Its full name is the Brays Bayou Federal Flood Damage Reduction Project. The district calls it the largest flood damage reduction program it has taken on to date. It describes Project Brays as a multi-year, $480 million project meant to reduce flood risk for people and businesses in the watershed. A watershed is all the land that drains into one stream.

CI-025 is Additional Stormwater Detention in the Brays Bayou Watershed. In plain words, it is a project to add more places to hold stormwater in that watershed.

D512-01-00-E002 is Stormwater Detention on Willow Waterhole. Willow Waterhole Bayou is one of three main streams the district names in the Brays Bayou watershed. The other two are Brays Bayou itself and Keegans Bayou.

Who is the federal partner

The district says it works on Project Brays with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a federal agency. The Corps is often called just "the Corps." That means Project Brays is not only a county job. The federal government is a partner in it.

What is a detention basin

A detention basin is a big, shallow bowl dug into the ground. When heavy rain falls, water that would rush into a bayou all at once is held in the basin for a while. Then it drains out slowly. The basin does not stop a storm. It spreads the water out over more time, so the channel is less likely to fill up all at once.

The district's Brays Bayou page lists several detention basin projects. Two it names are the Willow Waterhole Prairie Management Area and the Keegans Bayou Stormwater Detention Basin.

The bridge work

The Project Brays page also lists construction updates for a set of bridges across the bayou. The bridges named on the page are:

Buffalo Speedway
Almeda Road
Calhoun Road
Hillcroft Avenue
Chimney Rock Road
South Rice Avenue, the same street that runs past Bellaire City Hall
Stella Link Road
Telephone Road
Lawndale Street
Forest Hill Boulevard
Greenbriar Drive
South 75th Street
The Galveston Subdivision Union Pacific Railroad bridge

We did not find a page that explains each bridge project in plain words, so we will not guess what each one involves. If a bridge on your daily route is on the list, the district's page is the place to look for its updates.

Why work far away can matter at your street

Water follows the land downhill. A storm drain on a Bellaire street empties into a bigger ditch or pipe, and that empties into a bayou. If the bayou is full or slow, water can back up and the street drains more slowly. If the bayou has room, the street drains faster.

That is why a detention basin or a bridge project some miles away can matter to a street that looks nowhere near it. The work changes how fast and how well the whole watershed drains. How much it helps a particular street depends on where the street sits, and we cannot say that for any one block. To see whether your street drains toward Brays Bayou, use the watershed map on the flood control district's website.

Where the project stands

The district's main pages describe Project Brays as multi-year and give its $480 million size, but they do not state a finish date or the miles of channel work. The district keeps separate pages for Project Brays history, features and frequently asked questions, and those are the place for the current status. The information is public, and each project sits under its own ID, so you do not have to rely on rumor or a neighbor's memory.

How to look up a project

1. Go to hcfcd.org and open the Brays Bayou page under Active Projects. 2. Find the project by its name or by its ID, such as C-11, CI-025 or D512-01-00-E002. 3. Open the project's page for updates and any listed details. 4. For finished work, the district's 2018 bond program page points to a section called Completed Bond ID Summaries.

Because the ID is unique, it is the best thing to copy into a search box. A project's name can be long or change a little, but the ID stays the same.

Read the fine print

The $2.5 billion is for the whole county, not only the Brays area.
The $480 million is the district's figure for Project Brays alone, and it does not tell you what any one street will get.
A project on the list does not mean work is happening next to your home today.
The district's pages are the place to check current status.

Before you go

Write down the three IDs above and search for them on hcfcd.org.
Check the watershed map to see where your street drains.
If you have a flooding question about your own property, ask the city's public works office or the flood control district.

Sources

Harris County Flood Control District, Brays Bayou watershed page: cities drained, 127 square miles, 121 miles of streams, 717,198 people, Project Brays $480 million, bridge list (https://www.hcfcd.org/Activity/Active-Projects/Brays-Bayou)
Harris County Flood Control District, Project Brays (https://www.hcfcd.org/Activity/Active-Projects/Brays-Bayou/C-11-Project-Brays)
Harris County Flood Control District, 2018 Bond Program (https://www.hcfcd.org/Resilience/2018-Bond-Program)

En español

El 25 de agosto de 2018, los votantes del condado de Harris aprobaron $2.5 mil millones en bonos para proyectos que reducen los daños por inundaciones. El Distrito de Control de Inundaciones del Condado de Harris dice que la cuenca del Bayou Brays, de unas 127 millas cuadradas, drena partes de Houston, Missouri City, Stafford, Bellaire, West University Place, Southside Place y Meadows Place; es decir, el agua de lluvia de Bellaire va a dar a ese bayou. El distrito tiene una lista de esos proyectos en el área del Bayou Brays. Tres de ellos son C-11, el Proyecto Brays; CI-025, más detención de aguas pluviales en la cuenca del Bayou Brays; y D512-01-00-E002, detención de aguas pluviales en Willow Waterhole. El distrito describe el Proyecto Brays como un proyecto de varios años de $480 millones, y dice que lo realiza con el Cuerpo de Ingenieros del Ejército de EE. UU. Una cuenca de detención es un hueco grande y poco profundo que guarda agua de lluvia por un tiempo y la suelta despacio, para que el canal no se llene de golpe. Un proyecto lejano puede importar en su calle porque toda la cuenca drena hacia el mismo bayou. Las páginas que leímos no dicen si el Proyecto Brays ya terminó. Para buscar un proyecto, entre a hcfcd.org, abra la página del Bayou Brays y busque por nombre o por su número de identificación. Usted también puede usar el mapa de cuencas del distrito para ver hacia dónde drena su calle.

The HERE Bellaire team