City reviews $40M-plus Harvey-era drainage project; Corps permitting and land costs slow schedule

Consultant Steven Wilcox briefed the Rosenberg City Council at a workshop on progress and hurdles for the city's Community Development Block Grant-Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) drainage program, saying federal permitting and rising land costs have forced a revised scope to keep work on schedule.

Wilcox, a consultant with Dawson, said the grant work stems from federal CDBG-MIT funding released after Hurricane Harvey and that the original construction budget was in the tens of millions. "This is part of the community development block grant mitigation funding," Wilcox said, adding later, "The Corps of Engineers has potentially has jurisdiction over the bottom of channels" and that Corps jurisdiction determinations (an AJD) have been the project's biggest permitting hurdle.

The project covers several drainage corridors inside Rosenberg, including Dry Creek, Theater Ditch South and North and a northeast area near the Brazos/Rabs Bayou corridor. Wilcox said engineering is largely complete, land acquisition is underway and a bid for a downtown railroad culvert replacement is about to move to construction.

Why this matters: A Corps of Engineers jurisdictional…