Raymondville Drain Project Breaks Ground Friday
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EDINBURG – Hidalgo County had a groundbreaking ceremony Friday for their Raymondville Drain Project.
A 63-mile long pipeline will be constructed from Seminary Road in Edinburg to the Laguna Madre to alleviate flooding.
“The great thing about the construction is we're going to start where we need it the most,” explained Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner Joseph Palacios. “If you go back to 2015, when Faysville got hit and they were underwater, all the waters that come from northern McAllen and northern Edinburg will now have an additional outfall. We'll be able to at least to divert their floodwaters to a new system.”
The drainage district board allowed a $4.5 million grant, awarded by the Texas Water Development Board, to go towards the project.
"This project is definitely a massive project, 350-feet wide system. Once it's fully constructed, it will be able to be a self-contained system in our county to handle a 100-year event. That's very important because our other systems that we currently manage don't have that type of capacity," Hidalgo County Drainage District No. 1 director Raul Sesin said.
Palacios told CHANNEL 5 NEWS 75 percent of the nearly $400 million project will be refunded by the federal government.
He noted that taxpayers won’t feel any of that price tag.
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