1992-11-16 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Coupland Drive Pavement Rehabilitation Project Background Coupland Drive is a 24 foot wide reinforced concrete paved street with curbs serving a subdivision of Outlot 442, La Porte Outlots, Enoch Brinson Survey, A-5, La Porte, Harris County, Texas. The street right-of-way is sixty feet in width and is in the shape of a "U" (or horseshoe) with the open ends of the "U" entering on North "L" Street. The subdivision is named Diamond "C" Addition, and is filed for record in Volume 254, Page 123, of the Map Records of Harris County, Texas. It was constructed in 1977 under the subdivision regulations of the City of Lomax. Coupland Drive was not constructed in conformance with the plans for the project which call for a minimum design grade of 0.20%. It was designed to drain from the top of the "horseshoe" north to two pairs of inlets located at the intersection with "L" Street. The actual grade constructed for most of the street was about 0.10%. Also, over the years, there has been very significant and non-uniform settlement of the subgrade, probably due to inadequate compaction. The combined effects of these factors has resulted in a very inconsistent and uneven longitudinal and transverse gradient causing low spots to form in the pavement. As a consequence, there is shallow ponding of stormwater in these low areas after a rainfall event. The depth of standing water ranges from a fraction of an inch to up to two or three inches in some areas and the ponding is fairly widespread. This problem has created a nuisance for the residents that live along Coupland Drive in that the water stands in the road for days after a rainfall. The water cannot runoff, but instead simply sits in the road until it is dissipated by evaporation. This problem has been looked at for some time, dating back to a study done by H. Carlos Smith in September of 1982. Several alternatives were investigated, including asphalt overlay, complete reconstruction of the street, and open ditch drainage along each side of Coupland Drive. As reported in the H. Carlos Smith study, the most viable option was to provide open ditch drainage. However, this concept was rejected by the residents of Coupland Drive, as curb and gutter is generally considered more aesthetically pleasing than open ditch drainage. The concept of adding inlets near the top of the horseshoe, where some of the worst ponding occurs, and piping the drainage east to Lomax School Road was also considered. This was not feasible due to the inadequate depth at the outfall swale ditch along Lomax School Road.