Waco City Council to vote on dam project, TSTC facility

Updates

The Waco City Council on Tuesday will consider spending $12.4 million for a training center in Waco’s industrial park and $9.5 million for shoring up the riverbank around the Brazos River dam.

The council will vote on the items at its 6 p.m. business session at the Waco Convention Center’s Bosque Theater, following a 3 p.m. work session.

The council is set to award a contract to McMillen LLC to repair an embankment near the low-water dam that impounds Lake Brazos downstream of the La Salle Avenue bridge.

Deputy Water Director Charles Leist said the embankment is stable but in poor condition. He said the work will likely take about a year to complete, and will involve stabilizing the bank with steel pilings, concrete and riprap, or chunks of stone.

“If it were to catastrophically fail, essentially the Brazos would drain,” Assistant City Manager Paul Cain said.

The 200-foot embankment is on the east side of the river, near the low-water labyrinth weir dam the city built in 2007.

When the river level rises, the embankment is submerged and erosion speeds up. Waco utility workers have repaired and supported it over the years with a combination of a metal wall, riprap, rocks and concrete.

The engineering firm Freese and Nichols designed the labyrinth dam, which replaced a 1970 gate dam known for getting clogged with logs and brush. The firm originally proposed embankment work as part of the project, but city leaders opted to bid out only the dam portion of the project.

In the last five years Freese and Nichols has estimated the embankment repairs would cost $4.5 million and $5 million.

The embankment includes a gated channel and several valves, called the outlet works, the city occasionally uses to route water past the dam for maintenance purposes.

Also on the agenda Tuesday is a contribution to the Central Texas Industrial Training Center, a facility the Texas State Technical College Foundation plans to build the in the Texas Central Park. The foundation is asking Waco and McLennan County for a contribution of $12.4 million each.

Waco would contribute $625,000 annually for the next 20 years, while McLennan County Commissioners are expected to pay $8.4 million upfront, plus ongoing payments afterward.

TSTC and its foundation announced their plans for a 40,000 to 60,000 square-foot training facility in the industrial park in March. On Tuesday, the agreement outlined in the meeting agenda packet specifies a minimum 25,000 square-foot building.

The center will be owned, operated and maintained by TSTC and the TSTC Foundation for 15 to 20 years.

In February, TSTC Officials estimated 1,000 students or more a year would earn certificates from the new center.

Waco City Manager Bradley Ford said recent high school graduates, new students and current workers who need to learn new skills could benefit from such a facility.

“Someone can come off of a shift and go to class,” Ford said. “If the company wants to send them for training, they’re right in the heart of the industrial district.”