La Volla Creek to be Redesigned
Press Release
CORPUS CHRISTI – Corpus Christ Mayor Paulette M. Guajardo and Council awarded a professional services engineering design contract to Lockwood, Andrews, and Newman, Inc. for the La Volla Creek Drainage Improvement Project located in Council District 3. This $2.3 million dollar design-project is funded with FY 2021 Stormwater Capital Improvement Program Funds. The scope of work includes the engineering design of a stormwater detention pond and new box culverts crossing North Padre Island Drive at the Airport Tributary.
In recent years, the La Volla Creek watershed has experienced frequent flooding during heavy rainfall events. Flooding occurred at La Volla Creek during May 2015, May 2016, June 2018, and September 2018. The most affected area is the Las Colonias neighborhood. In 2018, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) finalized new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRM’s). Parts of the La Molina, Los Encinos and Las Colonias neighborhoods were shown to be significantly more impacted by the 100-year floodplain. The updated FIRM will trigger new flood insurance requirements creating hardships for those communities.
In January 2019, Council passed a resolution authorizing the submission of grant applications to the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Professional Services Contract Award La Volla Creek Drainage Improvements Development Block Grant - Disaster Recovery (CDGB-DR) program to support the La Volla Creek project.
The FEMA grants are administered through the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) and the CDBG-DR grants are administered through the Texas General Land Office (GLO). The City was awarded $7,234,755 from the CDBG-DR grant for engineering design, land acquisition, and construction. The City was also awarded $163,244 from the HMGP grant for a Phase 1 environmental assessment and for design. TDEM will award the remaining grant funds in the amount of $4,355,256 prior to construction.
Conceptual costs for the construction of these two elements are approximately $21 million. The La Volla Creek Drainage Improvements project will be completed within a two-year time frame and additional information for the project can be found at www.cctexas.com/lavollacreek.