Bayou Plans for Houston

It's been over 9 months but still all over the news is Hurricane Harvey. Houston was impacted by Harvey in almost every way - from 500 year flooding to neighbors losing neighborhoods to people becoming more neighborly. The news seems to continue portraying reconstruction of Houston in a negative light, but the Houston area continues to function much like it always has. Many have pushed for new zoning laws that would change the areas where new construction could occur or prevent repairs to still damaged structures. Others have proposed changes to the waterways themselves. Projects have been, and will continue to be, underway to expand and redesign the waterways and bayous surrounding Houston. One such project centers around White Oak Bayou near where it converges with Buffalo Bayou. The project outline, which has yet to receive funding, proposes that new trenches be dug to facilitate in the drainage of floodwaters. This would assist in relieving several hundred homeowners in the area of flooding worries by removing them from the 100 year flood plain. Being called the North Canal bypass, this project would lower flood levels by 4 ft in downtown which would significantly reduce the chance of wide flooding in the area. Another such an endeavor is Project Brays which encompasses 75 different projects along Brays Bayou. These projects include channel modification, where 18 miles of the bayou will be widened and the area between Old Westerner and HWY 6 will be deepened, bridge modification and creation of storm drainage detention ponds. The detention ponds, also called storm basins, will create areas of vegetation and wild animal habitat when not holding storm overflow. Adding green and preventing flood loss? Houston, that's a good plan!