May 9, 2005 -- Mayor Bill White today accepted donations of $2.5 million each from Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital System to support storm water drainage improvements in the Texas Medical Center area. These funds will help pay the City’s 25% share of a $72 million project to significantly expand storm sewer capacity in the MacGregor, Hermann and Kirby Drive areas by February, 2008.
“Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital were the first to step up with commitments following Tropical Storm Allison,” said Mayor White. “They’ve followed through with building improvements, new planning and, now that the actual storm sewer construction has begun, with their promised financial assistance. The same Texas Medical Center institutions that safeguard the lives and health of Houstonians every day are now making a major contribution to our future protection from destructive flooding.”
Peter G. Traber, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Baylor College of Medicine, and Ron G. Girotto, CEO and president of The Methodist Hospital System, presented checks to Mayor White from their institutions.
Work is under way on three Medical Center-area projects as part of the City’s Storm Water Management Program (SWMP), according to City Director of Public Works and Engineering Michael Marcotte. The projects, managed by J.F. Thompson, Inc., include:
- MacGregor Drive Storm Sewer Relief Project - installation of 14-foot diameter storm sewer in tunnel dug under MacGregor Drive from Brays Bayou to Fannin Street. The tunneling option was chosen to allow MacGregor Drive to remain open since this street is a major ingress to the Texas Medical Center trauma centers. Anticipated completion: June, 2006.
- Hermann Drive Storm Sewer Relief Project - installation of a 12-foot by 10-foot reinforced concrete box storm sewer and reconstruction of Almeda from Brays to Hermann and of Hermann from Almeda to the Mecom Fountain. Anticipated completion: September, 2006.
- Kirby Drive Storm Sewer Relief Project - installation of reinforced concrete box storm sewers from Brays to U.S. Highway 59, with some of the sewer’s dual side-by-side 12-foot by 12-foot boxes set 25-feet deep beneath Kirby Drive. Pavement will be fully reconstructed with new sidewalks, new streetlights, new 24-inch waterline, and new signals. Anticipated completion: February, 2008.
“Our aim is to accomplish a major engineering and flood prevention task with a minimum of inconvenience and dislocation, and with a net result that streets will be able to remain functioning in the worst of weather conditions,” Marcotte said.
More information about the project, with construction updates, is at www.swmp.org.