It was geographer Gilbert F. White who said, “Floods are acts of God, but flood losses are largely acts of man.” Many Texans are unaware of White’s legacy as the father of floodplain management, but for those who have lived through a flood, these words feel painfully familiar.
As homebuilding in floodplains has outpaced infrastructure over the past few decades, so has the frequency of severe weather events. This perfect storm of risk factors has left cities like San Antonio in need of major flood control upgrades to keep residents safe. At Seeling Channel near Woodlawn Lake, a catastrophic flooding event occurred in 2002. To prevent this from happening again, the City designed improvements to expand the channel’s capacity and remove over 200 homes and businesses from floodplain boundaries.
Sundt is currently building the $15 million Phase 3 portion of the Seeling Channel Improvement project, expanding on the company’s growing flood control resume. With channel slab now in place, our team is set to finish on schedule this spring. Getting here hasn’t been easy though, said Project Manager Devin Kilbarger. “It’s been an extremely rainy year. Our contract and initial schedule accounts for 30 annual weather days; we’ve experienced more than 70 weather events in the first 12 months.”
When you’re building a flood control structure in an active drainage channel, rain can really muck up the works. “It’s not just the water that we have to worry about, it’s all of the trash and debris that comes with it.” said Devin. “The debris gets entangled in the rebar and becomes very difficult to clean out. We had to clean a couple sections of rebar two, if not three, times before concrete placements could happen. It was a real morale-killer.”
Ultimately, Devin explained, the rain couldn’t erode this team’s grit—or sap its creativity. Beyond just gutting it out, the team partnered with the City of San Antonio to find several innovative workarounds to stay on pace and in budget, and minimally disruptive.
This dynamic was echoed by Sean Beauvais, Capital Projects Officer with the City of San Antonio’s Public Works Department, who said, “The team has worked to protect, inform and mitigate impacts to surrounding community members.”
“Sundt used soil nails instead of pilings for channel-wall shoring, which averted vibration and foundation claims,” Sean explained. “They also routed large trucks through arterial streets instead of residential ones, to avoid damage or disruptions, and they partnered closely with us to coordinate optimal road closures and laydown areas. Outside of the project boundaries, they went out of their way to communicate with and provide answers to residents.”
Thanks to the combined efforts of our project team, self-perform concrete crews, and local subcontractors, the project is set to complete on time in May 2022.
