Houston plans $273M investment in Lake Houston Dam Spillway Improvement Project

The city of Houston plans to spend $273.3 million on a groundbreaking expansion for the Lake Houston Dam. The project is in the design phase, with construction slated to begin in summer 2028. 

The Lake Houston Spillway Improvement Project will play an essential role in enhancing flood control measures in the region. The city will add 11 tainter gates to the eastern earthen section of the dam. The project will require the city to build a massive cofferdam to facilitate main construction efforts. 

Currently, the dam only has four small tainter gates to work with when mitigating flood risk, able to release water at 10,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). Nearly tripling the number of gates will play into the city’s efforts to exert greater control over flooding in the region. 

With the addition of 11 gates, Houston will elevate its release rate from 10,000 cfs to 78,000 cfs. This significantly improves the city’s capacity to release water in a controlled manner during severe storm events. Better, safer water control options means the city will be able to reduce the risk of localized flooding in upstream areas – particularly those adjacent to the lake. 

The project was proposed in response to the Hurricane Harvey disaster in 2017, where 47 inches of rain fell over four days. The 73-year-old Lake Houston Dam is outdated and no longer has the infrastructure or capacity required to deal with increasingly unpredictable flooding events. While the new tainter gates are a necessity, the Houston City Council has also commissioned a study to determine options for replacing the dam. 

While initial estimates pinned the project at around $160 million, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger has reported that the addition of the cofferdam has driven up final costs. However, the expanded project scope provides the city with leeway to repair and rehabilitate the dam in the process. 

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