Operation of the Trinity River/Fort Worth Central City Flood Management System

Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD), in cooperation with the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the City of Fort Worth, and Tarrant County, is currently in the planning stages of the Fort Worth Central City (FWCC) Project, a plan to implement improvements along the Trinity River to reduce flooding and provide recreational and other quality-of-life enhancements in the area adjacent to downtown Fort Worth. The project involves the construction of a bypass channel to divert flood flows away from downtown Fort Worth, a dam and three flood isolation gates, among other associated improvements. In order to commence final design of the channel improvements, a significant, detailed hydraulic modeling effort was necessary to confirm the feasibility of the plan as well as to determine the operating characteristics. Flood flows will be diverted to the bypass channel and flood isolation gates will be designed to limit the flows in the existing channel to low flows. In addition, navigable water levels will be maintained through the existing channel, the bypass channel and along Marine Creek (a tributary to the Trinity River). This paper describes how a dynamic hydraulic model was employed to determine and verify the operating procedures for the proposed improvements.