CITY OF KATY, Texas (Covering Katy News) — The Katy City Council on Monday approved a $4.4 million drainage improvement project for west Katy, which City Engineer David Kasper said would begin in March and is expected to be "substantially complete" by December.
The project involves installing more than one mile of new storm sewer pipe up to 54 inches in diameter, as well as asphalt pavement overlays and concrete street panel replacements. The project also includes realigning Franz Road near Magnolia Cemetery, 6801 Franz Road, to address a sharp curve in the roadway.
The $4.4 million for the project is comprised of a $4.2 million bid by AAA Asphalt Paving and a 5% contingency fee of $209,894. The bid was the lowest of nine received, Kasper said.
Corte: Project "long time in coming"
The project affects streets bordered, roughly speaking, by First Street on the south, Fern Lane on the west, Camilla Court on the north and Shetland Lane on the east, according to a city map of the project.
Ward A Council Member Janet Corte said the project has been a long time in coming and focuses just on drainage.
"When our neighborhood was built, the water just ran down the sides of the street until it hit the ditch," Corte said, adding that the water, when it reached First Street, would then go into sewer inlets. Some newer streets have such inlets.
City of Katy
A map of the west Katy drainage project, approved Jan. 26 by the Katy City Council.
Street repair project expected in next couple of years
Corte said a street repair project is expected in the next couple of years. She said some intersections in her area have sinking concrete where excess water pools.
"It's cracked, sinking, and so it ends up holding water," Corte said, adding there was one such drop, perhaps two inches deep, on her home street. "I haven't gone out there and measured it, but water just pools there."
Corte said such pools dry up when the sun comes out, or the water seeps through the ground and one can see that the concrete is deteriorating, making the situation worse.
Corte said some of her neighbors, when they learned of the drainage project, were confused about what the project involved. They told her they had water pool situations as she does. But she said the drainage project doesn't cover that work. The future street repair project will.
"Right now, we're just focused on drainage," Corte said.