The newly constructed 288 was designed to improve drainage and help mitigate flooding (Houston: apartments, home)

[PurplePunch2017]

Originally Posted by Jtxg

I've always thought it was weird that we have so many major roadways (99, parts of 90, that weird part where I think it's Westpark 59 and 610 meet) that go below grade level. We live in an area that floods relatively often. Why would you build a road below grade?

Eh what do I know, I'm not an engineer or planner. Just seems dumb to me.

Because you need places to store the water during heavy rains. Better highways floods than neighborhoods.

I feel pretty confident in saying engineers designed some highways to serve as water detention as a last resort.

[PurplePunch2017]

Originally Posted by Dopo

What do you expect in a city that does ZERO planning?

Grand Parkway @ FM2920 flooded about a month after they opened the highway
At the only spot in the area where the highway goes underground to go below a road
https://twitter.com/abc13houston/sta...892929?lang=en

Bayous and flood plains cross municipalities, seems like this would be much better solved a the county level instead of having a balkanized system. Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, etc should be the ones dealing with flooding and drainage.

[resonator]

Many years ago main streets in W. Houston 'burbs had their drainage ditch crossing bridges removed and the streets lowered to keep water out of the houses. People now are stringing steel cables between their trees and sitting on the porch with a rifle to discourage folks from driving through their yards since the streets are flooded.


I remember so many 5" afternoon rains after work where a several hour stay at a restaurant / bar was the best solution before heading home.

[kwr]

I’m re-posting the link to the click2 story about street flooding:
https://www.click2houston.com/weathe...ton-so-easily/

“In Houston, the streets are supposed to flood. They’re designed as secondary storm channels to hold storm runoff and allow it to drain through storm sewers into bayous and rivers.”

"The streets will flood so the homes don’t flood. The pipes underground that carry the water from roadways to the creeks can handle about 2 inches of rain an hour. So, we start talking about the rainfall rates we were seeing yesterday, 4 to 5, even 6 inches an hour, that’s just a tremendous amount of water that’s going to overwhelm the ability of pipes to carry that water."

5-6” of rain doesn’t fall per hr in most cities. NYC flooded after 6” of rain fell during Super Storm Sandy a few years ago.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

Isn't that Harris County?

Yes, but Counties have very little planning power.

[DabOnEm]

"Designing the streets to flood" is just another way of saying we didnt do proper flood control before the developer dollars came. You dont need to make the roadways of a metro of 7+ million people flood. You find a way to keep the water off the roadways however that may be. I've never heard of that being a solution in other major cities with similar flooding concerns.

[hbcu]

better planning - why build low near a Bayou? A blind man can see that

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by DabOnEm

"Designing the streets to flood" is just another way of saying we didnt do proper flood control before the developer dollars came. You dont need to make the roadways of a metro of 7+ million people flood. You find a way to keep the water off the roadways however that may be. I've never heard of that being a solution in other major cities with similar flooding concerns.

That's the way it's been here since the 1930's or earlier, certainly since the 1950's. It was partly driven by the fact that the bayous fill faster than the water going into them can be drained to the Gulf.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Jtxg

I've always thought it was weird that we have so many major roadways (99, parts of 90, that weird part where I think it's Westpark 59 and 610 meet) that go below grade level. We live in an area that floods relatively often. Why would you build a road below grade?

Eh what do I know, I'm not an engineer or planner. Just seems dumb to me.

You realize that we have a road/tunnel that goes under the Houston ship channel?

[Need4Camaro]

Just wondering but why not build more trenches to retain water instead of using highways to do it? That and aqueducts like seen in LA?