Keller City Council to consider million dollar ditch

by Jim Carson of Keller City Limits

Next Tuesday’s Council Agenda Items 3 & 4 involve improving the Highland Oaks Crossing Channel.

Here’s a Google map of the area. [Choose the Satellite view]

The City of Keller is considering spending $1.3 million to improve the ditch shown in the map running NW to SE from Rufe Snow to North Tarrant Pkwy. It seems that because of increased runoff from development, accumulation of silt, and some really persistent beavers, the channel sometimes backs up and floods Rufe Snow Dr.

As I understand it, items 3 & 4 on next Tuesday’s agenda involve some dredging of the channel and the lowering of some high-pressure gas lines which run under the ditch. The total cost of these two items is about $500,000. The remaining $800,000 is for additional dredging/grading, the placement of gabions, and some landscaping. [A gabion is a wire basket containing rocks, used to line the channel. I presume this thwarts both the accumulation of silt and the growth of cattails, both of which impede water flow.]

My question is not whether we should do this—it is whether we should do this now. Spending $1.3 million digging a fancy ditch means that we’ll have $1.3 million less to spend on roads, fire stations, or the library.