Sienna Plantation MUD #2 Ditch Update (from SPMUD2 website)-

Repost from SPMUD #2 website

We will update this as information becomes available:

Ditch Steering Committee Update
Mr. John Jakubik (on behalf of the Ditch Steering Committee) conveyed to the Board the Committee’s


recommendation regarding a solution and path forward for rectifying the standing-water problems being experienced in the ditchsections of Sienna MUD No. 2. The Committee recommended an alternative (Primary Collector Option) that will provide additional elevation drop and increase the slopes available to keep water moving through to the system’s multiple outfall points. As this is stated, the Board wants to be very clear that the drainage system as it exists today works quite well with regard to handling extremely large rainfall events and preventing flooding. The problems that exist within the system are limited to handling drainage issues at the other end of the spectrum - the elimination of standing water from the ditches.

After receiving the recommendation from Mr. Jakubik along with some engineering input from Mr. Tom Ramsey (with our third-party engineers - Klotz & Associates), the Board scheduled a special meeting for September 30, 2005. For the special meeting, Klotz & Associates were asked to perform the necessary work to take the conceptual alternative chosen by the Committee to a higher level of engineering detail so that budgetary and implementation issues could be more fully discussed. At the September 30 meeting, these issues were discussed and the Board approved a motion to authorize Klotz & Associates to proceed with detail engineering of the Primary Collector Option.

Contracts for Klotz to perform that work were requested to be presented for approval at the October 17th board meeting. Specifically, the Primary Collector Option includes the construction of a piped storm sewer system in the North-South corridors within Steep Bank West to provide for as much as 24 inches of additional elevation drop to the system’s various outfall points.

The piped storm sewer will result in shallow swales with area inlets (see example picture below) that will collect rainfall and channel it into the piped system.

By adding this additional elevation drop in the North-South corridors, the East-West drainage ditches (which flow into the North-South corridors) can be re-graded to benefit from this additional slope. There will also be some re-setting of culverts (under driveways) which were set improperly during initial construction. In these cases, the culverts were set with either a flat or a reverse slope that impeded the flow of water. With regard to the cul-de-sac areas in Steep Bank East and Steep Bank West, the Board is continuing to look at the options available to remedy those drainage problems and that are complimentary to the work described above.

In addition to the work above, the Board will also be working to address the situations where water stands in the culverts underneath driveways. This situation predominantly exists as a result of a design code requirement, from the City of Missouri City, that stipulated the minimum culvert diameter be not less than 24”. This size pipe required that many of the culverts through-out the ditch-sections be counter-sunk below the ditch’s designed flowline elevation. Had the bottom of the 24” culvert pipe been installed at the ditch’s designed flowline elevation, it would have resulted in driveways not being level with the streets. To the extent it does not impede the flow of water in an extreme rain event; the Board is planning to fill in these counter-sunk culverts to match the ditch’s flowline elevation.

This work is estimated to begin in March/April, 2006. The exact start date will be decided based on weather conditions closer to that time. There are several options with regard to how the work might be phased and the Board will continue to work through those options to come up with the most effective/efficient plan that has the least disruption to the community. In the interim, the Board will be going through the legally required public advertising process to prepare the bid documents, qualify the contractors and to accept bids for the work. This should enable the Board to evaluate the bids and execute contracts well before the planned start date mentioned above.

***The final aspect of the Ditch Steering Committee’s charter had to do with finding a third-party legal counsel that would evaluate the legal issues and determine whether or not there were any parties that could be held legally responsible for the situation as it exists. The Board has directed our third-party counsel, Bracewell & Guiliani, to undertake efforts to begin the process of pursuing appropriate remedies. In anticipation of possible legal proceedings, this is all that can be communicated at this time about this aspect of the project.***