The City of Irving is moving ahead with erosion and flood mitigation measures, with a new $35.6 million in state funding recently approved.
The funding, which was greenlit by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), pays for efforts to reduce flood risks for more than two dozen homes along North Delaware Creek.
The city has already received $115 million via TWDB for these projects, including another flood mitigation initiative in the West Irving Creek Channel. The West Irving Creek Channel improvement project is ongoing, with construction expected to run through the fall of next year.
City engineer Walt Thomas told KERA the North Delaware Creek project will help homeowners in the area worry less about heavy rainfall affecting their property.
“At West Irving Creek, it's almost 240 homes we protected from a 100-year flood risk,” Thomas said. “North Delaware is just continuing this program of mitigating those concerns.”
The North Delaware Creek project includes planning and design elements, land acquisition and the construction of just under 5,000 feet in channel improvements. Upgrades on deck include channel reinforcement, increasing the channel’s efficiency and improving utility crossings.
Thomas said the flooding mitigation program was catalyzed about a decade ago with the expansion of Texas State Highway 183, which runs through the heart of the Metroplex, including Irving. With changes being made to the roadway, the city had a chance to upsize the drainage channel flowing nearby.
“We had flooding for many years, and we just said, essentially, ‘It's on the list,’ so to speak,” he explained. “Now we're actually getting the backbone of our channel system in place so then we can start addressing more and more of the neighborhood flooding.”
Thomas noted that the city is looking at more options for funding, like FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grants.
“We’re constantly out there looking for those funding opportunities to help save the taxpayer money and at the same time protect homes from flooding,” Thomas said.
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