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Infrastructure Updates at the Lower Neches Valley Authority
The Jones Crossing site before the LNVA’s infrastructure replacement.
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he Lower Neches Valley Authority (LNVA), one of Texas’s 23 river authorities, provides wholesale raw water to industrial, municipal, and agricultural customers in the southeastern corner of Texas. Maintaining a 600‑mile canal system requires the LNVA to periodically replace pipe flumes and culverts in both urban and rural settings. One recent project involved the replacement of a drainage culvert, a freshwater conveyance culvert, and a road that all overlapped in precisely the same spot. In this interview, LNVA Engineering Manager Ryan Ard tells Municipal Water Leader about the Jones Crossing project and the authority’s other current projects. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.
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working at Jones & Carter, Inc., a private consulting firm in The Woodlands, Texas, mainly handling work with water districts, small cities, and public utilities. In 2016, I had the opportunity to move back to the Beaumont area and work for the LNVA as its engineering manager. I made the move back in February 2016 and have been working with the LNVA now for 4½ years. Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the LNVA’s history and services. Ryan Ard: The LNVA is one of 23 river authorities in the state, having been authorized by the Texas Legislature in 1933 to develop and manage the waters of the state. The LNVA is the federal partner and local sponsor for the Sam Rayburn and B.A. Steinhagen Reservoirs in the Neches basin. The LNVA holds rights to the use of essentially the entire dependable freshwater yield of Sam Rayburn Reservoir, or approximately 820,000 acre-feet per year. Our jurisdiction includes Hardin, Jefferson, and Tyler Counties as well as portions of Chambers and Liberty Counties. We operate a 600‑mile canal system municipalwaterleader.com
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE LNVA.
Ryan Ard: I grew up in Silsbee, Texas, just a few miles north of Beaumont, and attended Kelly High School in Beaumont. I then went on to attend and graduate from Texas A&M in 2011 with a bachelor of science in civil engineering; I later received a master’s in civil engineering from Texas A&M with a focus in water resources. After college, I started
The newly replaced Jones Crossing structure.
