Bohac Reports Progress on Brickhouse Gully

HOUSTON—State Representative Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) is pleased to announce that the Harris County Flood Control District has purchased 16 acres of land for a detention basin along flood-prone Brickhouse Gully. The new basin will be located west of U.S. Highway 290 on the northwest side of the gully. This comes after recent floods yet again left many area homeowners heading for higher ground.

“This is a major step toward preventing future flooding that threatens our neighborhoods along this vital waterway,” said Bohac. “A new detention pond, combined with renovations to the concrete sides and base of Brickhouse Gully, will bring a sigh of relief to residents that in the past have suffered severe flooding.”

A detention basin is an area where excess stormwater is stored temporarily and then slowly drained away when water levels in the receiving channel recede. Detention basins are used extensively in the Harris County region and are very useful in flood prevention. Actual construction of the new Brickhouse Gully detention basin could take place as early as 2005.

Representative Bohac has been very concerned about the Brickhouse Gully situation and its impact on his constituents. Last year he pushed for much-needed repairs to the waterway after damage was caused by excessive rainfall and illegal dumping of trash and debris. Construction on a damaged section of the crumbling tributary to White Oak Bayou soon followed near Mangum Road.

In addition to building the new detention basin, the Harris County Flood Control District is currently focusing on additional repairs between U.S. Highway 290 and White Oak Bayou. These include continued work on a section near Watonga and repairs to recent damage that occurred during heavy rainfall last November upstream of Mangum Road. This section suffered a collapse of the concrete wall on the side of the channel, exposing the dirt underneath. Immediate plans call for cement stabilizers to be placed over the failure until more permanent repairs can be made. Both projects are currently in the engineering phase and will soon go through the public bidding process. Full construction is expected to take place this summer.

“I applaud the Harris County Flood Control District for making Brickhouse Gully a priority,” concluded Bohac. “As future construction begins on this new detention basin and repairs are made to the channel, I will continue to push for additional flood improvements that potentially include widening of the gully, additional holding ponds and a reexamination of the use of concrete in the channel. It's important to keep these neighborhoods safe.”

Brickhouse Gully starts near Gessner and Clay Road and runs east between Clay (43rd Street) and Kempwood (34th Street) until it intersects White Oak Bayou in the Watonga area. Many areas in the watershed recently experienced significant flooding due the devastating rainfall amounts brought by Tropical Storm Frances in 1998, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 and torrential rains last fall.