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Federal Emergency Managemen
Washington, D.C. 20472
JUL 3 1989
The Honorable Lou Duggan
Mayor of the City of Coppell
P.O. Box 478
Coppell, Texas 75019
Dear Mayor Duggan:
Community: City of Coppell,
Dallas and Denton
Counties, Texas
Community No.: 480170
5W
This is in reference to a January 12, 1989 letter from Mr. Russell R. Doyle,
P.E., City Engineer and Floodplain Administrator for the City of Coppell, in
which he requested that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) revise
the September 22, 1988 preliminary Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and Flood
Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) for the City of Coppell to include updated corporate
limits information and the results of an untitled technical report prepared by
Kimley -Horn and Associates, Inc., consulting engineers for the City of
Coppell. This report, transmitted to the City of Coppell by Kimley -Horn and
Associates, Inc., with a January 5, 1989 letter, contained the following:
HEC -2 hydraulic modeling representing the 100- and 500 -year floods and the
100 -year floodway for the Elm Fork of the Trinity River, Grapevine Creek,
Denton Creek, and Cottonwood Branch; and topographic mapping of the entire
community delineating the proposed 100- and 500 -year floodplain boundaries and
the proposed floodway configuration.
We have reviewed the submitted technical data for each stream and have
identified a number of concerns, enclosed separately as review comments, that
must be resolved before FEMA will revise the preliminary FIS and FIRM for the
City of Coppell. Please direct all responses to these review comments
to our technical evaluation contractor, Dewberry & Davis, 8401 Arlington
Boulevard, Fairfax, Virginia 22031, to the attention of Mr. Dave Lushbaugh,
Management Engineering and Technical Services Division. Our processing of
this request to revise the preliminary FIS and FIRM for your community will be
considered inactive pending receipt of your community's response to the review
comments.
Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to
contact the Chief, Natural and Technological Hazards Division of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency in Denton, Texas, at (817) 898 -9127 or Matthew B.
Miller of our Headquarters staff in Washington, D.C., at (202) 646 -3461.
Sincerely,
Jt*, Matticks
C isk Studies Division
Federal Insurance Administration
Enclosure
cc: /Mr. Russell R. Doyle, P.E.
Mr. Ronald Morrison, P.E., Kimley -Horn and Associates, Inc.
Mr. Jerry Parche, P.E., Jerry Parche Consulting Engineers
City of Coppell, Texas
Map Revision
Review Comments
1. The submitted HEC -2 hydraulic models did not analyze the 10- and 50 -year
floods for each stream. Since this will result in the deletion of these
profiles from the Flood Insurance Study (FIS) and would deviate from
standard Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines, please
verify whether or not this was your intended course of action. If not,
please provide HEC -2 models representing the 10- and 50 -year floods.
2. In a technical report previously submitted to FEMA, entitled Floodplain
Hydraulics Study, Grapevine Creek, Moore Road Bridge Replacement, City
of Coppell, Texas, dated 1987, prepared by Kimley -Horn and Associates,
Inc., the HEC -2 hydraulic model for Grapevine Creek contains more
detailed information than the HEC -2 hydraulic model submitted with this
request. Specifically, the previous model contains more detailed bridge
geometry for the Beltline Road bridge, the most downstream St. Louis
Southwestern Railway bridge, and the Moore Road bridge, as well as
eleven additional cross sections between cross sections 18650 and 25086.
We feel that the more detailed HEC -2 hydraulic model should be used.
Please revise the submitted model or justify its use in place of the
previously submitted model.
3. The starting water - surface elevations for Grapevine Creek and Denton
Creek were determined using the HEC -2 tributary option. This option
should be used only when two streams are subject to coincidental peak
flooding conditions which normally occurs only with streams of equal
drainage area. Please either justify the use of this option or use the
slope -area method for the starting water - surface elevation, which may be
more applicable to this modeling situation. Please note that when
determining the floodway configuration, the effects of backwater
flooding from the Elm Fork of the Trinity River should not be included.
The tributary option does include the effects of backwater flooding and
thus the floodway models should be revised, as appropriate.
4. We have received a request for a conditional Letter of Map Revision for
the construction of the proposed Parkway Boulevard bridge, which is
located near the confluence of Cottonwood Branch and Denton Creek. This
February 24, 1989 request was also from Mr. Doyle and was transmitted to
us by our Region VI office. With this request, Mr. Doyle submitted a
technical report prepared by Jerry Parche Consulting Engineers that
included the following: HEC -2 hydraulic models representing existing
and proposed 100 -year flood and floodway conditions for Denton Creek and
Cottonwood Branch; topographic mapping delineating the proposed 100 -year
floodplain boundary and proposed floodway configuration; and plotted
cross sections for Denton Creek and Cottonwood Branch. A comparison of
the existing conditions hydraulic models for Cottonwood Branch and
Denton Creek from this submittal and the hydraulic models from the
Kimley -Horn and Associates, Inc., submittal indicates differences in the
technical analyses that yield different results. These differences are
listed below.
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a. Kimley -Horn and Associates, Inc., has modeled the two streams with
an assumed common floodplain from their confluence upstream to a
point approximately 1,220 feet upstream of Denton Tap Road. Jerry
Parche Consulting Engineers has modeled the two streams with an
assumed common floodplain from their confluence upstream to a
point approximately 475 feet upstream of Denton Tap Road.
b. The 100 -year flood discharges utilized in the submitted HEC -2
hydraulic models
for Denton Creek are outlined below.
100 -Year Flood
Discharges
Kimley -Horn. and
Jerry Parch6
Cross Section
Associates, Inc.
Consulting Engineers
28870 (below Cottonwood
21300
- - - --
Branch)
32150
21300
21300
32780 (above Cottonwood
21300
21300
Branch)
33145
21300
14900
36970
15600
14900
39440 (at Interstate Route
15600
15600
121)
39540
15400
- - - --
Please note that the flood discharges listed above are for the 100 -year
frequency storm only and that there may be similar discrepancies in the 10 -,
50 -, and 500 -year frequency storms.
Before FEMA will revise the preliminary FIS and Flood Insurance Rate Map for
the City of Coppell, these concerns with Denton Creek and Cottonwood Branch
must be resolved. The City of Coppell must resolve these discrepancies and
decide upon a single HEC -2 hydraulic model for Denton Creek and for Cottonwood
Branch that most accurately represents the floodplain and floodway configura-
tion for Denton Creek and Cottonwood Branch for their entire lengths within
the community.