The Witt Road Bridge over Cottonwood Branch was vulnerable and prone to periodic inundation during locally-heavy precipitation events and during times of high pool elevations at Lewisville Lake. The Town of Little Elm proposed to remove the existing bridge and construct a new 480-foot bridge structure, along with associated approaches and trail connections, to provide dependable all-weather access between residential subdivisions and important services such as schools and emergency response facilities.

VRX was responsible for delineation of waters of the U.S., assessing the proposed roadway plans’ associated impacts to waters of the U.S., developing a USACE nationwide permit preconstruction notification and mitigation plan and coordinating with the USACE to attain timely authorization. Delineations included defining the limits of forested and herbaceous wetlands and the ordinary high water mark along Cottonwood Branch. The USACE jurisdiction limits were mapped using sub-meter-accuracy GPS data and incorporated into a geographic information system to determine the footprint and volume of fill within waters of the U.S. Through coordination with design engineers, proposed discharges were minimized, allowing the project to be authorized under the nationwide permitting program. A mitigation plan, including the purchase of mitigation bank credits, was prepared for USACE approval.

This project also included impacts to private lands encumbered by the USACE flowage easement for Lewisville Lake. VRX facilitated coordination between the local USACE operations office, design engineers and the Town of Little Elm. USACE approved impacts to the flowage easement in accordance with the flood storage mitigation plan.