Is Houston's storm planning inadequate?

There is way too much disjointed filler in this week's "Move It" column (which is more about infrastructure in general than transit), so we're going to play editor and cut it to what's really interesting and hyperlocal:

When we talked last week, infrastructure was in the news. Floods had left motorists stranded and even led to a drowning in a culvert under the new Katy Freeway. “For a long, long time, we’ve just shrugged our shoulders and said ‘It floods around here,’ ” [D. Wayne Klotz, Houstonian and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers] said. “But I’m just wondering if that’s good public policy.”

Klotz said it might be a good time to reconsider our local storm water capacity: “Our design criteria for drainage in Houston is the lowest of any major city on the Gulf Coast,” he said. Specifically, the city’s pipes are designed for a two-year storm event, one that has a 50 percent chance of happening at any given time. Other places plan for a five-year event, which brings much more water, Klotz said.

That is the sort of thing we'd like to hear being discussed, in detail, by all of the folks running for Mayor and Council this time around.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 05/04/09 09:35 PM | Print |

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