Harris County Commissioner Precinct 4 Lesley Briones, Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey, and the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) hosted a groundbreaking on January 20, celebrating the start of the Addicks Reservoir Rehabilitation and Restoration Project –one of the largest flood infrastructure maintenance efforts to date. The ceremony was held at 7210 Huffmeister Road in Cypress.

The $25 million project is a part of the HCFCD maintenance program approved by voters in November 2024. The project will repair approximately eight miles of channels, remove sediment, stabilize erosion, and restore flood control capacity within the Addicks Reservoir system. The investment covers both Harris County Precinct 3 and Precinct 4 with $100 million per year for the project, officials said.

“This project in this area will enhance safety for approximately 1,000,000 residents,” Briones said.

“We are going to stay focused on seeing as how much of that 100 million we can turn into projects like you see behind me and making a specific difference in the neighborhood,” said Ramsey.

Joining Ramsey and Briones was Tina Petersen, executive director of the Harris County Flood Control District. ”This region has been impacted by multiple storms over the last 10 years,” she said. “We had Tax Day in 2016, Hurricane Harvey in 2017. And those storms brought unprecedented amounts of sediment into the channels that drain into the Attics Reservoir, causing sediment accumulation in some areas and erosion in other areas. And so, in response to these storms, the flood control district stood up multiple restoration projects right after Harvey, but that work was not enough. We still have a backlog of work that must be addressed. And that is what we are here today to acknowledge, to recognize a project that tackles 24 different locations in this backlog and it is a multi-year $25 million investment.”

“These channels play a critical role in carrying stormwater to the reservoirs and it strengthens this system that provides critical flood risk reduction for thousands of homes and businesses across Northwest Harris County,” Petersen said.

Within the eight miles of channel repair, about 50,000 cubic yards of sediment will be removed out of the bayous, Peterson said. “There's some of these 2500 miles of creeks and channels in Harris County that have never been maintained,” she said. The project will also install 11,000 linear feet of storm pipe and 115,000 tons of crushed rock, Petersen said.

But there is more to come, following the completion of this project, the commissioners said.

“We announced just a few weeks ago that we're on track to implement and complete $3.5 billion worth of flood mitigation projects that'll be done over the next four to five years,” Ramsey said.

“Commissioner Lesley Briones is committed to creating a flood resilient county that keeps residents safe before, during, and after any storm,” a statement from Harris County Precinct 4 said after the event. “In Harris County, preventing flooding will always be a top priority.”