Houston to use $47M loan to replace bridges for flood relief
The state will provide a $47 million no-interest loan to Houston in order to replace eight bridges west of downtown that block the flow of storm-water during heavy downpours.
The city will forward the money to the Harris County Flood Control District so that bridge replacements along Brays Bayou can begin in March.
The Houston Chronicle reports that the loan is just one piece to the long-delayed flood-relief plan known as Project Brays.
Other parts of the plan include widening most of the bayou and removing 15,000 homes and businesses from a 100-year flood plain.
Flooding regularly occurs and thousands of the roughly 700,000 people living in the Brays Bayou watershed flooded again during Hurricane Harvey.
Sluggish federal reimbursements have been a key factor in dragging out the project for two decades.
