59/610 underpass among priorities for barricade plan
After three more drivers drowned in their cars Monday in the flooded underpass near the Galleria, Harris County Judge Ed Emmett called the deaths “unacceptable” and said he would lead an effort with county and state transportation officials to prevent more motorists from drowning at this and other flood-prone sections of Houston-area highways.
Emmett said he would take ownership of the project to develop a barrier system to prevent people from driving into high-water areas.
“This is not the first time there have been deaths there,” he said of the Loop 610 intersection with U.S. 59 south of Uptown. During last year’s Memorial Day flood, a man drove into high water in the same location near the Galleria and died.
Emmett said the county would have to work quickly with the Texas Department of Transportation, the Harris County Toll Road Authority and others to identify trouble sections of area highways where motorists have drowned in flooding.
“I’m not sure anybody has ever put together an exact list of where we’ve had drowning victims,” Emmett said. Three drivers die
After Monday’s historic storm, the body of a female driver was pulled Tuesday from floodwaters in the underpass leading from the tollway to Post Oak and Loop 610. Two others were found dead on the nearby feeder road to northbound Loop 610. The three motorists were among eight fatalities across the greater Houston area that occurred during the storm.
“The whole point is that sometimes it is very difficult to see the water levels when someone is not used to the area,” said Gino Lim, chairman of University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering’s industrial engineering department. “Based on what we know, which location was flooded often, we can set the priority and put gates in those locations.”
That, combined with data and more accurate flooding information, can reap results, he said. “Technology is getting better in terms of phones and sensors, and these are absolutely crucial to preventing fatalities in the future,” Lim said.
Monday’s flooding along low roads occurred despite years of well-known floodprone underpasses and crossings. The culprit in some cases, however, seems to be drivers not heeding warnings, or somehow missing them — a fact that worries local transportation officials.
“We have folks who are doing things and we don’t know why,” said Quincy Allen, district engineer for the TxDOT in Houston.
Solutions that save everyone in any flood condition are hard to come by, as some roads in Houston will flood in certain heavy storms. It’s impractical and financially questionable to build detention ponds for historic floods, officials said. Warnings will only stop drivers if the information is reliable and easily available. Even barriers, in some cases, are ignored or missed by disoriented motorists.
“Drivers still continued to proceed into the flooded areas, irrespective of uniformed officers, barricades, etc,” Houston Public Works spokeswoman Julie Gilbert said of Sunday’s storm.
For most drivers, missing or ignoring the warnings and high water causes stalled cars and possibly a flooded vehicle interior. For an unfortunate few, it can cost them their lives.
Lim, who developed early-warning sensors to help alert people of flooding around the Houston area, said better warning systems are vital — possibly including electronic gates at some locations that prevent motorists from proceeding.
Installing gates in every location where it could possibly flood during historic rains would be extremely costly — about $350,000 per location — in the Houston area because there are dozens of entrance and ramps to freeways, lowlying roads, underpasses, and major streets running along and across bayous and flood channels.
Based on his research, Lim said the 610-59 interchange, Allen Parkway at Studemont, the Sam Houston Tollway at Beamer and the Sam Houston interchange with Interstate 10 east of Houston are prime candidates for gates. Underpass dangerous
The three drownings this week occurred at the Loop 610 intersection with U.S. 59 in underpasses that dive below both freeways and the various connector ramps. In at least one incident, it is suspected the driver passed a tow truck and barricade blocking the road, TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis said.
The deaths follow another on May 27 during last year’s Memorial Day floods in the same location. TxDOT crews found the man as rains receded, and suspect he drove into the high water during the night.
The underpasses are critical components of the intersection and local street system, which serves more than 500,000 vehicles daily, Lewis said.
Managing flooding in the Loop 610 underpasses, built about a decade ago, requires a complex transition of pumping water from the roadway to a nearby detention pond so it can be added slowly to regional drainage pipes and canals. Allen said all of those systems, checked before, during and after the recent rains, worked as designed.
“A rain like that has a potential to overwhelm the system,” Allen said of Monday’s one-in-200-year storm that dumped nearly 18 inches of rain on certain parts of Harris and Waller counties.
A handful of spots, including the 610-59 interchange, frequently have high water. While officials stress the highway and drainage designs are not inferior, many are being improved, and the changes are expected to reduce but not eliminate street flooding.
Allen said plans to rebuild the 610-59 interchange, set to start construction next year, include expanding or deepening the detention basins and making technical improvements to regional flood control.
Following the Memorial Day motorist’s drowning last year, Allen said crews installed new flood-gauge markings in the underpass in the hopes it would give drivers visible information. TxDOT also expanded use of its “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” education campaign. Warnings are typically placed on the changeable message signs along Houston freeways before and during major rains, and TxDOT often uses social media such as Facebook and Twitter to alert drivers to flooding danger during storms.
Though some ignore the warnings, the efforts follow methods common in advertising.
“When you are thinking of advertising and marketing communications, context is really important,” said Kyle Allen, vice president and media director for The Company of Others, a Houston-based advertising firm. “Getting that message as close to the time of decision.”
Messages are most likely to resonate when people see them close to making a decision, whether that’s to purchase a product or not to engage in a potentially dangerous activity.
Allen said social media in particular is a good market for safety messages, timed when someone might be looking online for travel information or news coverage of the recent floods.
“That context is key,” he said. Signs increasing
Education and public awareness has limits, however. The driving advisories need to be up-to-date and also posted clearly on the roads.
“The best thing to do is let people know they shouldn’t drive when the water is in front of them,” Lim said.
Following the May floods, city officials identified 27 locations where high-water sensors were combined with flashing lights intended to give drivers better information. Lim helped coordinate the program, operated as a test for his Flood Information Graphical System, but city officials are installing and maintaining the warning system.
“The system consists of a sensor in curb, which will trigger a flashing light on a warning sign when the water reaches a certain level on the curb,” Gilbert, the Houston Public Works spokeswoman, said.
Crews have finished installation at 19 of the locations — which cost $350,000 each to outfit with the signs, lights and sensors — with the other eight on pace for completion by the end of summer.
Ideally, Lim said, officials have a host of options for how best to warn drivers and residents about flooding. In some areas it might be urging them to check online, or sending them alerts when water sensors show a high probability that flooding will occur soon.
Along roads, the city’s flashing lights are helpful, he said, but gates that prohibit all drivers would be useful in certain locations.
“We are learning from what happened in the past that some areas can benefit from warning, or more,” Lim said.
City and transportation officials, however, stress that too often, people ignore warning signs and barriers. Gilbert said the city’s 27 locations included the installation of a gate similar to that at railroad crossings along Houston Avenue at Memorial. The low Houston Avenue underpass frequently floods during heavy rains, the arm was intended to keep people from driving into high water, which can rise quickly.
“Drivers drove around it or crashed into it,” Gilbert said of the gate. “So we have proceeded with the program without the arm.” Warnings varied
During Monday’s storms, the amount of warning drivers received varied among locations. In flood-prone areas experiencing some of the most severe flooding, crews used large orange barricades and even machinery such as trucks to block streets. Police also monitored certain areas and used cruisers to keep drivers from proceeding.
In other spots, warnings were minimal. A single orange cone in some spots blocked exit ramps from the U.S. 59 freeway that were flooded below. High winds blew some of the cones out of place.
Many spots left drivers to fend for themselves as the rains turned some roads into rivers.
C.M. Rahman, driving north on Newcastle north of Bellaire in his BMW loaded with his family, stalled the car after hitting high water Monday morning. Three passers-by helped him push the car to safety.
“This is why you drive a truck,” one said as they got Rahman’s car to higher ground.
Moments later, Rahman acknowledged that plunging ahead was a mistake, with a caveat.
“I didn’t know how deep it was,” he said of the high water.