City of Irving to complete dredging projects this summer

The Municipal Drainage Utility (MDU) Division of the Capital Improvement Program Department will once again, as part of the summer tradition, undertake projects involving the removal of sediment from the city’s channels, ponds and waterways, the City of Irving, TX, said.

The primary purpose of these operations is to restore flood storage capacity to waterways and ponds.

Deepening and widening these areas typically has an auxiliary benefit to aquatic wildlife:

• their potential habitat depth increases, so does the opportunity for biodiversity,

• lower temperatures and higher dissolved oxygen content,

• other general water quality benefits.

There are two primary projects scheduled for this summer, one large pond project and one channel project.

The pond desilting project will take place at the southeast corner of Belt Line Road and State Highway 114 in the Commons at Parkside.

Desilting operations will be focused on the most eastern of the two ponds, as it has nearly reached its capacity for capturing sediment.

The secondary project the MDU division aims to complete is the desiltation of several concrete channels near Freeport Drive.

According to the City, this 1.69-mile channel section drains into Grapevine Creek and facilitates drainage from several streets, parking lots and businesses in the area.