 Welcome to the Laveau Channel at 28th Street in Decatur Avenue, Channel Improvements Community Meeting. My name is Justin Naylor. I'm a Project Manager with the City of Fort Worth. Also on this call, we have Council Member Flores. Council Member Flores, is there anything that you'd like to say before we get going? Just a quick brief comment. I want to welcome everyone for joining us and Justin and our Project Manager Development Engineer and Project Engineer. Very important effort we're making here, Laveau Channel Improvements. Well, the list is tall and long. There are a lot of things that need to be done, but I commend staff for working with my office and finding a path that we can take to incrementally make these improvements. So thank you very much. Thanks, Justin. Thank you, Council Member Flores. So this project is being brought to you by the Transportation and Public Works Group, specifically the Capital Delivery Division. Within that, we're working in the program that's called our Hazardous Roadway Overtopping and Mitigation Program, otherwise known as the ATROM. Because we are a government entity, we do have to use acronyms and so ATROM will be the acronym of the night. The main purpose of the ATROM program is to address flooding from overtopping of the roadway whenever heavy rains come. The main reason why we're interested in that is because water over the roadway can sweep away cars very easily, as well as pedestrian. So it's a life safety issue that we're looking to address with the ATROM program. This project is currently in the project development phase. Our mantra with the project development is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So the prevention that we're looking for is we want to make sure that we have a good understanding of the source of flooding. We want to make sure that we have a good understanding of the city plans in the area, like a master thoroughfare plan which dictates what roads will be where and what size there'll be, a park master plan, an active transportation plan which kind of dictates where trails will be. We also want to make sure that we have a good understanding of the existing utilities. This would be city water and sanitary sewer facilities, as well as electric communications, gas lines. We want to make sure that we have a good understanding of all those, as some of those can be very difficult to work around. We want to make sure that we have a good understanding of required permits. The city, we do have to get permits for our work. This would be a permit from possibly the Corps of Engineers, possibly a floodplain permit so that everybody can be on good terms with FEMA. We also want to make sure that we understand all the other site constraints before we move this into a full-fledged project. So with this project being in project development, things are liable to change as the project develops and moves along. So again, the primary reason for this project is to address overtopping at 28th Street, caused by an undersized channel. As Council Member Flores mentioned, LIVO has a long history of flooding with millions of dollars having been spent to mitigate the flooding so far and still millions more to spend. The master plan was completed approximately 15 years ago with multiple projects having been completed since then. One of them is the 28th Street culverts, which TechStot did about nine years ago. TechStot, they came in and they improved the culvert crossing, but because channel improvements hadn't been done downstream of this crossing, the full channel solution wasn't able to be implemented at that time. So you can see in the image on the left that the dot showing roughly where our crossing is and the image on the right showing roughly the extent of our project. Not that any of you really need any further proof, but here's some images of flooding that have taken place in this area. You can see in the image on the right that the amount of debris that's stacked up against the fence next to 28th Street. You can see that a chain link fence just doesn't offer a whole lot of resistance to a significant amount of water. So I'm going to go through our project scope and kind of lay out what we're planning to do, but I'm going to start off with showing where we are today. The black line that runs from the right side of the screen to the left side of the screen represents roughly where the center of the channel is today. You can see that it crosses underneath the existing culverts that TechStot improved under 28th Street. And then runs, as you get downstream or south of 28th Street, runs very close to Decatur Avenue through a concrete line channel that's not in very good shape today. On the south end of our project is Trail Drivers Park, which just for reference, north is to the right on all of these images moving forward. To the west or to the left above the screen is the north side rail station, the Trinity Rail Station. And again, Trail Drivers Park is to the south here. So one of the first things that's going to happen is the channel is going to be lowered and realigned and stabilized. The channel bottom is going to be stabilized using these images that are shown in blue. It's called a rock riffle structure. Those are rocks that are stacked strategically to help stabilize the channel at an important point. The channel bottom is going to be made up out of rock. And the idea is that we're going to, with lowering the channel, we're able to flatten out the slope, which means we're going to slow down the speed of the water. By slowing down the water, we reduce the opportunity for erosion. And then at the far right side of the screen, you can see that big box would represent the drop structure, which gets us from the lower channel elevation to the higher existing channel elevation. And again, the culverts will remain in place. And this is an image, a cross section of what that channel bottom is going to look like. And you can kind of see the bed material that's a little bit rockier. And you can see the stone protection there. After we get the channel realigned and lowered, then we'll be coming in and we'll be installing a riparian buffer, which is shown in green, which is kind of a natural floodplain area with some taller shrubs. And then we'll also be installing plantings similar to Brennan Avenue, by the project that's just downstream of this one. So if you wanted to go get an idea of what this one, this project will look like. You can go down to Brennan Avenue and take a look at the plantings there. So you can see on the right bank or the east bank that there's a heavier tree planting area. And this is required by the Army Corps of Engineers for our permit. And then on the west side or the left bank, you can see that there's more of an urban landscaping area with a more regular interval of trees. And so this image is what the overall cross-section is going to look like. You can see over on the left, the urban landscaping, which is less dense. And then over on the right, the riparian enhancement area or the mitigation area that's required by the Corps of Engineers. Also with this project, this project is considering a future trail that's shown in the Park Plains. This trail would provide connectivity to the rail station. Right now, we are working with Parks Department to determine if we can partner with them to get the trail constructed at the time that we do the construction of this channel. But that is still in process. So to kind of recap and go over some of the benefits, this project will reduce the over-topping at 28th Street. It'll reduce that likelihood making it for a safer area. It will help reduce some of the flooding that takes place at 28th and the railroad underpass. This will help by one preventing water that may today leave the channel and go into Decatur Avenue. And then it'll also help by lowering the channel, the water surface elevation in the channel, thus allowing that stump to drain up more quickly. It's gonna restore some natural floodplain functions to the area, which is gonna provide some environmental and some aesthetic benefits. And it's also going to reduce maintenance costs by eliminating the failing concrete channel and keeping our crews from having to go out and replace concrete. Anticipated project milestones, we anticipate having design complete in the spring of 2022, going to bid and award in the contract in the summer of 2022 with construction starting in the winter of 2022 or 23. We anticipate construction taking lasting until the summer of 2024 for funding. This project is bond funded and has an estimated cost of $5.2 million. And with that, I'd be happy to open this up to any questions that we may have. Michael Crenshaw, he's gonna be reading off any questions that we have. Michael. Thank you, Justin. Thank you for the presentation. As I know we have some visitors on with us and I don't have any questions that have come through on the chat window just yet. I do wanna highlight though that there is a project website shown on the screen here. You can get to that through the city's new website and see some details. And of course, the contact information on the screen is whom you can contact regarding the questions that you have regarding the project. And the current timeline that Justin talked about is tentative, of course, we're in early days, but as was mentioned earlier, LeBeau has a long history and an extensive amount of effort has been put into it to date. So this is another tremendous milestone in that process. And one question, Justin, that does come to mind is, is there going to be any interruptions to traffic during anticipated during this construction effort? That's a great question, Michael. At this point, we don't anticipate a whole lot of traffic interruptions. We don't anticipate closing Decatur or Northeast 28th Street or Gunther Avenue shown there, which is actually the Trail Drivers Park. We don't anticipate that. Most of the work is gonna be taken place in the channel. So at most you'll see periodic trucks coming in and out of the channel area. Usually probably on the north side of 28th, they'll be coming in off of Decatur. And then most likely on the south side of 28th, they'll be coming in through the Trail Drivers Park there. Okay, so that's good that the impact, I guess, from a traffic standpoint be minimized there. Also you pointed out in the funding that it was funded by bonds. And we wanna highlight that that is a stormwater revenue bonds. The stormwater revenue bonds are financed through our stormwater utility fees that we all pay. And that's important to note. The may have seen the recent article in the Star Telegram that highlighted the bond program and the variety of projects that are being pursued to help make not only roadway crossing safer, channels more efficient, storm drain rehab, et cetera, things being done. This is one of those projects. And regarding your contacts that you had, they're just in on the screen, Michael Wellbaum, do you wanna introduce him and mention his role going forward? Yeah, so Michael Wellbaum, he will be managing the project on the city side moving forward. So he's gonna be taking the project through design and into construction. That will be his role. So we're kind of in this transition area between project development and moving it into a full project. So feel free to contact either one of us, but moving forward, Michael Wellbaum will be coming back and providing updates in future community meetings as well as responding to likely other inquiries. Okay, good deal. One thing that Councilman Flores pointed out, the need for planning alignment, the future textile improvements to 28th at Decatur. I know there has been coordination up to this point, Justin, I think you have a slide that kind of highlights the general area and maybe mentioned that we have been in coordination with TextDOT on that. Yeah, so TextDOT is gonna be working on 28th Street and the low pass, particularly at the railroad is one of the biggest trouble spots in the area and we have been coordinating with TextDOT regarding those improvements. They actually have a public meeting coming up in November to discuss those improvements as well. And we can certainly provide that information on the project website if anybody is interested. But yes, we have been coordinating with TextDOT regarding those improvements. Okay, good point. Yeah, that sump under the railroad has I think that's one of your photos there. That has a very long history. And so this project will lower the watershift elevation, help and drain that sump under the underpass there. So yeah, we can add that to the project website as we go. And so this is the project development phase, roughly early days, about 30% are just right there. So what will the other meetings and about roughly when those will occur, not dates, but I mean, as far as phases of the project, Justin. So we anticipate future community meetings when we have construction plans at a 60% level. So we'll have a lot more detail flushed out at that time. And then again, at 90% and then finally a community meeting with the contractor once we have a contractor on board. So that would be after the project has been bid and awarded to a contractor. At that point, the contractor's gonna have a lot more information about where they think they're gonna make their access points and what everything's gonna look like as far as from a day-to-day standpoint. Okay, good to know. So there will be further meetings. Those will be announced on the project website. So I'd keep an eye on that. And the new city's new website and that's fairly easy to find that project webpage location. And as you said, this meeting will be recorded. And so a link to that will be on that page as well for your friends or neighbors or others that would like to attend and listen in as the progress is made and the project moves forward. And I don't see any other questions that have occurred up to this point. And if you do have any questions and even after we're done, those questions can be directed at either Justin or Michael Welbaum, their email addresses and phone numbers were put up there. Please do let them know, reach out if you have any questions. And again, this is being recorded, will be on the project website. And so they are friends and neighbors can watch it in coming days. And if they have any questions, they'll know who to contact from that. And future meetings will be scheduled as Justin mentioned, 60%, roughly 90%. And that will provide much more information, detailed plans, engineering type information. So I think that was it for our presentation and the questions that have come in and don't believe Justin if you have anything else or council member Florez, if you have any closing remarks, welcome to add those. We have some folks that have called in and we can unmute anyone that would like to interject a question or I think everyone that has called in or is able to unmute themselves. And any questions from our audience? Michael, this is a council member Florez. My closing remarks would be, again, I appreciate everyone listening in. I also like you made the presentation with the graphics of the maps, locations so people get a sense of the scope of the project. Again, LIBO channel is a rather sizable area to be making improvements on when it comes to stormwater and things related to that. So it's good to give a sense of place as to where the project's gonna occur, when it's gonna occur. So thank you and thank Justin for the presentation and the work. All right, thank you. And we'll again, same format, we're not sure when a time when in-person meetings will resume, but should that happen, we'll get to meet face to face. But if not, we'll definitely still have this avenue to present and get the word out to everyone. And so we'll leave this up for a few minutes. And if anyone has any questions, you can type them away in the chat window or unmute yourself and ask away. A few of us will hang around here to hopefully answer any questions you might have. And if you think of it later, cups in your mind later, you can email or phone either Justin, Naylor or Michael Welbaum, they can answer or get you an answer, get you to the right person to get an answer for any questions you might have. So I think that concludes it for our presentation. Like I said, we'll leave this going for another few minutes or so in case anyone wants to type something in the chat window or popped out a question. But otherwise, thank you, Justin, for the presentation. I wanna thank Fries and Nichols for the project development work they've done on this to this point. And going forward, Matt Busby with L.A.N. is on with us and they'll be carrying the torch forward on the detailed design part of the work, working with Michael Welbaum there. So if we have everyone in the room, if you have a question, feel free to ask away. And thank you all for coming and hope you have a good evening. And we'll stay on the line for a few minutes in case anyone has any questions. Thank you.