HCFCD awards FEMA grant funds to Serco Construction for stormwater project

The Harris County Flood Control District was awarded a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to finish construction of the Jersey Meadows Stormwater Detention Basin.

The FEMA Hurricane Ike Hazard Mitigation grant will reimburse up to 75 percent of construction costs needed to complete the basin, a 42-acre site adjacent to a White Oak Bayou tributary in northwest Harris County.

Harris County Commissioners awarded the approximately $3.6 million construction contract to Serco Construction Group, Ltd. May 8. The 30-month project includes removing 432,000 cubic yards of soil, constructing a weir spillway and regrading the detention basin’s slopes. The district has already excavated 164,100 cubic yards of soil from the site.

Work on the project will include construction of a 1.6-mile trail around the detention basin. Jersey Village will fund construction of the trail through an interlocal agreement with the district. The Jersey Meadows Stormwater Detention Basin will hold 114 million gallons of water when completed.

“The Jersey Meadows Stormwater Detention Basin is one of 10 stormwater detention basins included in the Flood Control District’s White Oak Bayou Regional Flood Control Plan to reduce flooding along White Oak Bayou,” said Mike Talbott, Flood Control District director in a press release. “To date, we have purchased a total of 490 acres for those 10 detention basin sites and completed nine stormwater detention basins, which collectively hold 1.4 billion gallons of stormwater. This will be the final basin completed as part of the regional plan.”

In addition to the regional stormwater detention basins, the district has completed 7.5 miles of channel improvements along White Oak Bayou from Beltway 8 to Tidwell Drive and improvements to the two-mile Jersey Village Channel.