SWG-2010-00198 - Jefferson County Drainage District No. 6 - Jefferson County

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The applicant proposes to amend the existing Department of the Army (DA) Permit to incorporate the placement of fill material within jurisdictional wetlands for the purpose of providing construction and maintenance access to the Right-of-Way (ROW) along the North Fork Taylors Bayou and access to the ROW on the north side of SH 73 at its intersection with the Needmore Diversion Channel.

When Jefferson County Road and Bridge Department redesigned and constructed the wider bridge at the Craigen Road crossing of Taylors Bayou to accommodate the widened channel of Taylors Bayou (per the original Permit #22643, Sheet 22 of 43, now Sheet 25 of 53), access to the Taylors Bayou ROW was inadvertently precluded by the longer bridge and the required safety guard rails (refer to Figure 1, Sheet 2 of 53, for location). Drainage District No. 6 (DD6) will need permanent access to the Taylors Bayou ROW at Craigen Road for both the permitted construction and future maintenance activities. Because the Craigen Road bridge is not high enough to allow equipment to pass under it on the Taylors Bayou ROW, access is needed to the ROW from all four corners of the bridge crossing.

At location #1 (Craigen Road and the North Fork Taylors Bayou) the applicant proposes to discharge fill material at all four corners to construct permanent access to the ROW. An old existing well road will be modified on the northwest corner to provide access for large equipment. This corner will require fill to be discharged into 0.074 acres of wetlands. The southwest corner access will require the clearing of, and the discharge of fill into 0.040 acre of forested wetlands. Access to the eastern side of the bayou’s ROW will require widening an existing well road with 0.119 acre of forested wetlands to be cleared and filled on the north side of Craigen Road. In the southeastern corner of the intersection, access to the ROW will require 0.497 acre of herbaceous wetlands to be filled to create the access road.

At the SH 73 crossing of North Taylors Bayou, the Texas Department of Transportation constructed a bridge to accommodate the Needmore Diversion Channel crossing (per the original Permit #22643, Sheet 3 of 43, now Sheet 4 of 53). Access to the Needmore Diversion Channel western ROW on the north side of the highway was inadvertently precluded by the bridge and the required safety guard rails (refer to Figure 1, Sheet 2 of 53, for location). DD6 will need permanent access to the western Needmore Diversion ROW on the north side of SH 73 for both the permitted construction and future maintenance activities. A 48-inch culvert will be placed in the well road borrow ditch to facilitate storm flows in the ditch (Figure 7, Sheet 6 of 53).

At location #2 (north side of SH 73 at its intersection with the Needmore Diversion Channel) the applicant proposes to improve access to the ROW through the discharge of fill material into 0.297 acre of wetlands off of an existing well road. The applicant also proposes to place a 48-inch diameter culvert into the existing well road borrow ditch.