AUSTIN (KXAN) – City Watershed Department staff are evaluating why an automatic barricade with a lane-blocking gate arm and flashing warning lights along a twisting section of Spicewood Springs Road failed early Friday morning. Thinking the road was passable, a man drove his car past the inactive device about 6:20 a.m. and into a rain-swollen creek at the very next flooded low water crossing.
When in the down position, the automatic barricade blocks access to seven such crossings along the normally scenic north-end drive which cuts through St. Edwards Park.
Kevin Shunk with City Watershed Protection told KXAN he did not have precise information on when the arm was supposed to have been lowered Friday. Low water crossing information from ATXfloods.com showed an alert for the area went out at 7:02 a.m.
“Certainly, there are so many roads and low water crossings in the city susceptible to flooding, we can’t get to everything at exactly the right time,” he said.
It’s unclear what caused the mechanical issue. KXAN asked for inspection and maintenance records for all equipment in the area, and that request is pending.
“Those automatic gates are misleading,” said one commenter on KXAN.com. “People understandably assume if they are there that they work — meaning if there is water across the road that the gates will come down. I have seen several occasions in which the gates did not come down when the road was impassable. The depth of the water at those crossings can be hard to judge because the road dips down so much into the creek. Anyone not familiar with the road (and does not stop to check the flood gauge) can easily be fooled.”
Three hours after that incident at low water crossing #7 in which the driver escaped out the window of his swamped vehicle, KXAN spotted crews out repairing the broken alert system near Old Lampasas Road. The roadway reopened after 5 p.m. Friday. ATXfloods.com tweeted there could still be inches of water on the road and for motorists to be careful.
When creeks spill their banks, warning barricades similar to ones found at railroad crossings can be remotely triggered by Watershed Protection staff at either the Emergency Operations Center in Northeast Austin or at city offices on Barton Springs Road. Preferred protocol involves having work crews on scene to time the lowering of the gate arm, staff said, and to move manual barricades into place in the opposite lane.
Remotely-operated gates are at Spicewood Springs Road and Old Lampasas Road and at Route 360. Others stand guard in the southwest end of the City at Old Bee Caves Road and another on Joe Tanner near the ‘Y’ at Oak Hill.
Travis County has a low water crossing with flashing lights at Hamilton Pool Road. Williamson County has no low water crossings marked with lights or a barricade arm.
The city manages low water crossings all over Austin. City budget records show staff inspected 643 creek crossings last year and intend to look at the same number this year.
City records show there are:
• Signs with flashing lights at 20 low water crossings in Austin
• Staff gauges at 25 locations
• Signs reading “Watch for Water over Road” at about 40 locations
The budget for fiscal year 2015 shows Watershed Protection stands to benefit from a .60 cent per-household increase in the Drainage User Fee. About $5.7 million expected to be raised from the levy this year will go to cover program cost increases, including “Flood Hazard Mitigation equipment and maintenance” a city staff memo showed. The city is also expected to spend $224,000 on public flood awareness campaigns in the new fiscal year which begins Oct. 1.
Longer term, a $1,135,000 resolution council members passed this fall will allow for investments in the city’s flood prevention, protection and preparedness, according to a staff report.
Public money is going toward:
• improving the Flood Early Warning System (FEWS) Radio Network $100,000
• hardening existing USGS gauges (done in June) $ 75,000
• installing additional gauges $100,000
• conducting a FEWS evaluation study $400,000
• enhancing flood monitoring software $300,000
• installing additional cameras at low water crossing areas $150,000
• improving FEWS server hardware $ 10,000
For Shunk, even the best-funded flood protection system cannot replace common sense. “It’s up to people to take some personal responsibility and really know their route,” he said, recalling an instance several years ago when a driver went through a flooded low water crossing along Spicewood Springs Road and was swept into the torrent. He did not realize the force of the water had taken out the roadbed itself.