Schutze's must-read of the winter has finally arrived: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Dallas Floodway Environmental Assessment, in which we finally get a good look at the city and HNTB's $30 million in proposed fixes for the Trinity River's levees. Not sure when Jim will turn in his report; there are many hundreds of pages of docs to review, including myriad appendices that document the past, present and future of the river (including this photo album). Till then, begin here: the main doc, which details the construction of "approximately 18,300 linear feet of riverside cutoff walls along selected portions of the East and West Levees of the Dallas Floodway System," the bulk of the fixes needed to get 22.7 miles' worth of the levees back to 100-year FEMA accreditation:
By implementing the Proposed Action Alternative, the City intends to correct system-wide deficiencies of the Dallas Floodway System and regain its 100-year FEMA accreditation. However, if the Proposed Action Alternative is not implemented, FEMA would finalize and reissue the final effective 100-year event FIRM. Under the latter case, the existing structures within the remapped areas that have federally-backed mortgages and loans would be required to carry flood insurance. In addition, many privately-issued mortgages would also require flood insurance security. The remapped areas would also be subject to new constraints and more stringent requirements for development.Those wondering how this relates to the Trinity River Corridor Project or properties along the Trinity might want to begin on Page 44 of the PDF, with the section "Land Use Plans and Future Land Use;" says there's $2,437,783,612 worth of land within the "region on influence," or ROI. And further down, the report notes:
Of the 18 census tracts in the income and poverty analyses study area, 4 census tracts [Census Tract (CT) 41.00, CT 102.00, CT 104.00, CT 106.02] exhibit median household incomes below the 2011 DHHS poverty threshold of $22,350.The master appendix, incidentally, also provides an extraordinary history lesson. With pictures, even.
