The push to build a massive underground tunnel system to protect Houston from the kinds of floodwaters Hurricane Harvey brought nearly nine years ago is far from over.

After years of delays in getting the project moving, U.S. Reps. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, and Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia, are trying a new approach. The lawmakers have teamed up to include a provision in a big water resources spending bill that would force the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite a report needed to green light the multibillion-dollar project.

That bill, the Water Resources Development Act, passed a key committee in the U.S. House on Tuesday and now heads to the full House for a vote.

“This project reflects an effort to think big about how to protect our entire community from the cumulative toll of more rain and more storms,” Fletcher said after the measure cleared the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. 

The tunnel system would route floodwaters from around the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and Buffalo Bayou to the Gulf of Mexico. 

When more than 50 inches of rain fell in the region during Hurricane Harvey, in 2017, the Addicks and Barker dams were pushed to their brink. First, homes and businesses were flooded when water backed up behind the dams into flood pools. Then the Army Corps was left to release water downstream to prevent dam failures. That, in turn, resulted in more flooding downstream as Buffalo Bayou became even more inundated.

Luttrell, who is in his final term in Congress, said Houston families have waited too long for real protection from future storms. He hopes the new directive in the legislation will finally get the key report completed.

In the past, Army Corps officials have dragged their feet over concerns about the project's price tag, which could be as much as $12 billion, and over the project’s effectiveness. The Army Corps has outlined alternative projects to address flooding, but Fletcher has argued that key regional players want the large tunnel project and see it as the most effective way to protect the area from flooding, even from smaller storms and hurricanes that can shut down the city.

Fletcher was first elected to Congress in 2018, in the aftermath of Harvey.

View this article in Houston Chronicle.