Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
City staff say paired Balboa RDF excavation and Buoy Reservoir fill cut costs to about $3 million
Loading...
Summary
McAllen staff told the City Commission that excavating the Balboa RDF and using that fill to refill the nearby Buoy Reservoir reduced combined construction costs to about $3,000,000 versus earlier $4.5M–$6M estimates, and officials announced a ribbon cutting for the Balboa Sluice Gates.
McAllen city staff presented a plan to pair excavation at the Balboa RDF with fill for the Buoy Reservoir, saying the combined work reduced overall costs to roughly $3,000,000 compared with earlier estimates of about $4.5 million to $6 million. City Engineer Eduardo Mendoza told the commission the approach allowed the city to complete two projects — drainage improvements and reservoir fill — while stretching design and construction dollars.
Mendoza said the city budgeted about $137,000 for design work for the fill project and received construction bids "close to $3,000,000," compared with prior standalone estimates that ranged from about $4.5 million to $6 million. He framed the outcome as an economy of scale that benefitted the city's stewardship of public funds and allowed simultaneous drainage improvements for a broad area on the city’s South Side.
Why this matters: staff said the paired work improves drainage over roughly 1,500 acres (about 2.4 square miles), including industrial areas and sites planned for future development, and creates additional storage that lowers surface-water elevations across the drainage basin. Mendoza described the storage and conveyance path as using a local channel referred to in the meeting as the "Sarah Ditch," which conveys water toward the Mission Inlet; the paired excavation and fill will hold water for steady release into the floodway.
On operational details, a staff speaker described the project as providing "more than . . . 1,000,000 cubic yards" of additional capacity (the transcript phrasing was unclear on exact punctuation and modifiers). Mendoza also noted that the Balboa Sluice Gates — for which staff scheduled a ribbon cutting the following morning at 10 a.m. — now include inline backflow-preventer valves to help prevent reverse flows into the system.
Commission discussion focused on routing and storage. A commissioner asked how drainage water would reach the new retention area; Mendoza explained the existing ditching and how the new storage will capture and then steadily release flows into the Mission Inlet. Another staff member said the engineering principles used in this project will be applied to other projects when city ditches or drainage systems can provide fill material, and that a related item would be discussed in executive session later that day.
The workshop record shows a motion was raised to go into executive session; the transcript does not record who moved or seconded the motion or the result. The meeting closed with a reminder that McAllen workshops are held the second and fourth Monday of each month at 4 p.m. in the City Commission Chamber at City Hall and that the public may attend or view the proceedings online.
