Harris County making progress on countywide road flood warning system

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — Harris County continues to advance a roadway flood warning system that will detect flooding and alert drivers.

Harris County was awarded $2 million from a ‘SMART’ grant, according to Harris County officials and a project announcement.

“The sensors are designed to give real-time data on the condition of those roadways similar to what the flood control district has for the rivers and the bayous, except these are going to be focused on the roadways,” said Samuel Peña, who is the Harris County Chief of Infrastructure & Disaster Recovery.

The county will place several sensors that will detect roadway flooding and will alert drivers.

Peña explained how the county is identifying where the sensors will be placed.

“The study identified about 117 high-risk areas. About 60 miles of county roads that are prone to flooding and another 290 or so locations, and another 60 or so road miles of medium-risk flood-prone roadways. Those are the ones we are going to be focusing on to install some of these sensors that we will be initiating through this grant,” Peña said.

It is unclear if the sensors will detect flooding on each road.

The initial phase will use a public-facing dashboard to alert drivers, followed by a system that will use real-time alerts, according to county officials.

“If you look at the information from the National Weather Service, over 60% of the fatalities during flooding events happen in vehicles, and it’s not vehicles being swept away unexpectedly, it’s people driving into flooded conditions,” Peña said.

The first phase is expected to be complete in about 18 months, according to Peña.