#Austin rainfall totals lcra series

A buoy line will cordon off the construction area to give crews more room to work, the LCRA said. Will boaters still be able to use Lake LBJ?īoaters will be allowed on Lake LBJ during the project, but the LCRA will expand the area that's already off-limits to boaters from 150 feet to 300 feet upstream from Wirtz Dam. The LCRA expects it will take about two months to replace each floodgate, which puts the completion date for the entire project sometime in 2025. “Dams along the Highland Lakes play a critical role in managing floodwaters, and we have to maintain their readiness at all times.” “We could do this project more quickly if we replaced multiple floodgates at once, but we are in Flash Flood Alley, and that is not a viable option,” said John Hofmann, the LCRA's executive vice president of water. Why is the LCRA replacing the floodgates?Īccording to the LCRA, the agency is upgrading each gate at Wirtz Dam 'with a new custom-made floodgate that meets today’s engineering standards.' To keep the dam operating, the gates will be replaced one at a time. Ferguson Power Plant was built nearby in Llano County. The LCRA added a 10th gate in 1974 when the original Thomas C.

Wirtz was built in 1951 to create Lake LBJ, with nine gates to pass floodwaters downstream. Wirtz Dam connects Lake LBJ, which sits behind it, to the next car forward, Lake Marble Falls. Think of the lakes as train cars carrying passengers, and when one car gets overloaded, the passengers move to the next car forward. Wirtz Dam is one of the six dams on the Colorado River that form the Highland Lakes upstream from Austin. So what does the LCRA's renovation of floodgates mean for Central Texas, and how will it affect people in Austin? Here's what we know: What's Wirtz Dam? On a side note: Lady Bird Lake is not one of the Highland Lakes. The LCRA, which runs the dams, uses them to manage the sometimes flood-swollen river and generate hydroelectric power.

#Austin rainfall totals lcra series

If you're new to Austin, you should know that the Highland Lakes are actually the Colorado River, separated by a series of dams. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Floodgates at Wirtz Dam, which forms Lake LBJ upstream from Austin on the Colorado River, will be replaced in a $76 million, three-year project, the Lower Colorado River Authority announced earlier this year. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. On Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:53 am and is filed under Austin Texas Weather.

Tags: austin lake levels, austin rain, austin weather (Even, it would appear, real-time accumulations!) If that’s not enough to hold your attention, you can choose from a healthy variety of map overlays that show everything from Austin area lake and stream levels and flow rates to humidity and temperature levels. You can see Austin rainfall totals over the last year, week, 24-hours, etc. The site revolves around a google-powered map that lets you pan and zoom in and out to find the area your interested in. So the next time you ask yourself “I wonder how much it has rained in Austin today” or “How much did it rain in my neighborhood”, you can find a quick answer. For those of us skywatchers who are counting every drop and rooting desperately for rising Austin lake levels, this is like discovering google for the first time. The site, administered by the Lower Colorado River Authority, shows (among other things) the rainfall totals from the LCRA’s vast network of rain guages in the state. The site is a fantastic and easy place to check current and historic Austin rainfall totals. I had someone direct me to this excellent Austin weather website recently.