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City launches real-time Playa Lake monitoring dashboard; drainage bond projects target Lawrence Lake, Playa 7 and other flood hotspots
Summary
Public Works unveiled a real-time Playa Lake level dashboard and outlined prioritized drainage bond projects, including an expanded Lawrence Lake pump station and a permanent pump and force main for Playa 7. Staff said monitoring plus planned construction will improve storm response and reduce flooding in known hot spots.
Amarillo's Public Works Department demonstrated a new real-time dashboard that tracks water depth, rainfall and webcam images for Playa Lakes and outlined how drainage bond proceeds will be spent on prioritized flood-mitigation projects.
Public Works Director Alan Harder showed a map and live dashboard that now reports lake "percent full" based on measured water volume and digital depth sensors, hourly webcam images and local rain gauges. Harder said the system was developed with West Consultants and deployed with city crews; the public-facing site will be published on the Drainage Utility page and can display historic trends, hourly rainfall increments and webcam time-lapses.
Why it matters: The dashboard gives staff and the public more accurate, near-real-time data to understand how individual playa lakes respond to rain and to time pump operations. Harder said converting level reporting from subjective visual checks to sensor-derived volume helps predict how much capacity each lake has before heavy events.
Planned construction projects: After the dashboard briefing, city engineers reviewed bond-funded projects prioritized from a master plan and from preliminary engineering reports (PERs). City staff said the drainage bond proceeds will focus on projects shown to materially mitigate flooding. The most substantial item is a proposed Lawrence Lake project that would install a larger force main and a new pump station to double the lake's dewatering rate; staff estimated a design-and-construction cost in the tens of millions for the Lawrence work and said it would significantly reduce the time the lake takes to draw down in large storms.
Other key projects presented included: - A permanent pump station and long force main for Playa 7 (the lake currently uses a portable pump at times); the PER is complete and staff recommended design and construction work to send water north toward Meadow Park and West Emerald Creek. - A storm-sewer extension in the 40th Street/Lamar area to reduce roadway inundation near Bennett Lake. - A multi-site storm-sewer project (Western/Olsen) planned as a shelf-ready design for future funding once Lawrence Lake pumping capacity is in place.
Staff emphasized the sequence: Lawrence Lake pumping capacity should come first because it increases system throughput and enables other projects to operate effectively. Engineering reports eliminated several previously proposed items (for example, dredging certain lakes) because modeling showed minimal drainage benefit.
Next steps and timing: Harder and the engineer team said PERs are complete for the prioritized projects, design contracts will be procured and the city will present opinions of probable construction cost (OPCC) and formal bid packages as designs finish. Staff said they expected to meet the statutory timelines for bond-funded projects and to bring design contracts and bid recommendations to council for award decisions.
Mayor and council praise: Council members commended the public-facing dashboard and the staff's work to refine project lists to the most impactful items. "This is a great example of public works . . . the public interfacing, forward facing part of this is fantastic," the mayor said.
