Work gets back to normal for DD7
Published 6:25 pm Tuesday, September 19, 2017
By Lorenzo Salinas
Jefferson County Drainage District 7 approved another payment for repairs for the hurricane protection levee in Tuesday’s DD7 meeting.
The DD7 Board of Commissioners approved a second payment to Mason Construction for continued repairs on the section of hurricane flood levee wall located out by Taylors Bayou. The payment was $1.86 million.
DD7 manager Phil Kelley said there were currently 70-foot steel pyres being driven into the ground around the damaged levee spot in an interlocked formation to further stabilize the ongoing repairs.
“It’s a long-term temporary solution,” Kelley said, noting that those pyres could stay there for a few years before federal aid could come through for a more permanent solution.
Nevertheless, Kelley expressed approval of the repair work being done at the levee, calling it a good stabilization overall.
In addition, he said there was consideration among the DD7 Board in selling off the sandbags that were no longer needed at the affected section of wall. If so, they would be sold off in a contract to Texas Department of Transportation for $180 a bag.
Kelley estimated the potential recoup from selling the sand bags would be $234,000.
In the next item, a change order was approved for the Alligator Bayou Pump Station Annex Project, a project to build a new pump station near the district’s largest pump station, Alligator Bayou Pump Station.
The change order regarded an extension of time for Allco, Inc., the contractor performing the construction. The Annex Project is funded by a Hazard Mitigation Grant worked through FEMA after Hurricane Ike.
The new contract extended beyond the original timeframe due to delays Kelley said were unavoidable.
The DD7 Board of Commissioners approved another payment to Allco, Inc. for its continued work at the Annex Project.
Due to delays DD7 has been facing itself—such as getting flooded out of their original office on 9th Avenue and relocating—Kelley said the amended budget for fiscal year 2016-17 and approval for the budget for fiscal year 2017-18 were not ready yet.
As such, Kelley said the board would hold a special meeting sometime between this month and Oct. 1 and they would get both budgets completed.
In other items, Total Petrochemicals and Refining USA, Inc. were granted permits for the installation of a proposed pipe bridge that would go over the levee wall and the installation of a proposed three high box culverts in the District’s Atlantic area.
Both items would be in support of Total’s proposed ethane cracker project expansion, itself a part of the company’s $1.7 billion expansion.
