City of Brenham Storm Damage Repair Program

Ardurra delivered flood recovery engineering services for the City of Brenham following a catastrophic May 2016 storm that dropped over 19 inches of rain in two days, with 16.62 inches falling in a single day. This extreme weather event caused severe damage to public infrastructure, including drainage channels, roadways, and culverts, while threatening critical operations at the city wastewater treatment plant and Lake Somerville water treatment raw water intake facility.

Working alongside the city engineer, Ardurra conducted immediate post-storm field investigations to address public safety concerns and recommend mitigation actions, identifying infrastructure damage and failures at 28 locations throughout the city. The team performed detailed damage assessments at each site to determine failure causes, establish damage limits, and evaluate adjacent utility impacts requiring potential relocations for infrastructure repairs.

Ardurra prepared a comprehensive Technical Letter Report documenting observed erosion, failures, and associated damages across all 28 locations, providing conceptual repair and restoration options with preliminary cost estimates ranging from thousands to several million dollars per location. The prioritized repair approach enabled the Brenham Maintenance Department to execute more minor repairs, while more complex locations required detailed engineering and extensive construction oversight.

The team successfully assisted in preparing documentation to secure Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) funding for multiple repair projects, maximizing federal disaster recovery resources for the community. This strategic approach to damage assessment, repair prioritization, and funding acquisition enabled systematic infrastructure restoration while minimizing local financial burden during the recovery process.