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An unforeseen issue was uncovered, quite literally, during construction on the Stonegate Drainage Project.

John Cannatella, capital project engineer for the city of Port Arthur, said crews uncovered three utility conflicts while working on the project. Two are with AT&T and one is a gas line.

The utility issues are delaying the project from going down Golfhill Drive and Oakmont Drive.

A possible solution, Cannatella said, is building a “conflict box” around the utilities but this won’t work for the gas line.

Instead, the line will have to be lowered, as the company does not want the line to go through the conflict box. This means this will be a bit of a delay for the project to go down Golfhill and Oakmont, he said.

“We’re hoping this can be resolved in a week or two,” he said.

Next on the list of the project on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard is to pave the street.

Cannatella provided an update to Port Arthur City Council this week, updating them on the past few months of work on the project as well as giving information on current and future phases.

In April crews began excavating the outfall canal off of Jimmy Johnson Boulevard. At that time officials knew there were three pipelines in that corridor, one of them ended up being a foot lower than anticipated.

“We ended up having to adjust the grade on our ditch to go underneath these pipelines,” he said, adding that rain did affect the work.

Since that time the outfall ditch was completed and the placement of the concrete boxes along the boulevard began.

“The boxes were laid on Jimmy Johnson and there were lots of traffic impacts and it was a mess,” he said. “We tried to do the best we could with unloading those boxes, storing them in the median but we got it done, they’re all in the ground now.”

As the weather became drier it allowed the crew to return to work on excavating the ponds.

“We’re anticipating removing about 70,000 yards of dirt from all of the ponds in the whole project, which will be 70,000 yards worth of storage for storm water,” he said.

Once complete the drainage improvement project will be capable of handling an increased water flow.

Cannatella  said the hope is for the area to be able to handle a 50 or 100 year storm event.  Which is the reason the funding was given to the city by FEMA.

“I mean this is what FEMA gave us the money for, to alleviate flooding in those houses during a 100 year storm event, which is roughly, I think 18 inches in 24 hours,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Doneane Beckcom, who represents District 3 that includes the Stonegate area, asked about communication with the residents on Golfhill and Oakmont drives. During a town hall meeting earlier this year officials told residents they would be notified in advance of when the work will move to their streets.

Cannatella said he will check but he believes work will begin on one of the streets in two to three weeks.

“And I know this is going to cause some issues, specifically on Golfhill as there’s one way in and one way out,” he said. “It’s going to be treacherous but we’ll work with the citizens there to make sure they always have a path.”

 

Project information

The reinforced concrete boxes used in the project will be able to take the water from Jimmy Johnson Boulevard to the Babe Zaharias Golf Course and from there it will be pumped to the Drainage District ditch behind Waffle House on Jimmy Johnson Boulevard.

The $17.8 million project is possible through federal funding by a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program and the Community Development-Block Grant-Disaster recovery funds.