{"id":289741,"date":"2026-05-12T16:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289741\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:21:09","slug":"the-million-dollar-drain-kiiitv-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289741\/","title":{"rendered":"The million-dollar drain | kiiitv.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Excavators roll into Petronila as the county races the hurricane season clock.<\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Heavy rain can quickly turn roads into rivers in parts of Petronila. Now Nueces County leaders are hoping a new drainage project will help keep stormwater moving before neighborhoods flood.<\/p>\n

County officials gathered this week near Petronila Elementary off County Road 67 to break ground on a flood control project aimed at improving drainage during major rain events.<\/p>\n


\n \"\" <\/p>\n


\n This story continues below. <\/p>\n


\n
\n More in Local
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n
\n Multi million Petronila project drain
\n \n <\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a>
\n
\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n

\"\"
\n
\n <\/p>\n


\n
\n Nueces County breaks ground on Petronila drainage project
\n \n <\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a>
\n <\/p>\n

The project will widen and deepen drainage ditches that county leaders say are currently too small to handle the runoff produced by intense South Texas thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

Excavators were already positioned near the site as crews prepared to begin construction.<\/p>\n

Joseph Ramirez with ICE Engineers said the upgraded drainage channel is designed to move water away from neighborhoods faster.<\/p>\n

\u201c25 feet wide. It\u2019s going to have a berm that comes along right here on the side wide enough. People can actually drive through it,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to continue to help the residents out here that are always impacted by the heavy rains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officials say flooding in the area can happen quickly when large amounts of rain fall in a short period of time, leaving roads and yards underwater.<\/p>\n

Precinct 2 Commissioner Joe Gonzalez acknowledged the work will not completely eliminate flooding but said it should help reduce the impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never solve the problem completely really it\u2019s more like a Band-Aid right,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cYou\u2019re hopefully gonna patch it here and patch it there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project carries a price tag of about $1 million and is part of a larger $6 million flood control effort targeting nearby colonias that also deal with repeated flooding concerns.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez said additional drainage projects are planned for Golden Acres and Tierra Grande.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got one coming up from Golden Acres and another project coming out for Tierra Grande,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThose are major projects. Those are on the table. We\u2019re trying to take one project at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal ARPA funds are paying for the work. County leaders say they hope to complete the project before the peak of hurricane season arrives in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Excavators roll into Petronila as the county races the hurricane season clock. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 Heavy rain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-289741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}