CASE STUDY 4 — Cane Island Pkwy Office Condos 16.1-Acre Office Condo Business Park | Full Civil Engineering Design

PROJECT OVERVIEW

JRH Engineering provided complete civil engineering design for a 16.1-acre office condo business park in Katy, Texas, with access to a public road. The site presented a significant grade change on one side — a challenge that could have required costly earthwork and extended the construction timeline. JRH accelerated the project by reusing previously approved detention plans and resolving the grade change with a targeted retaining wall solution rather than site-wide regrading.

AT A GLANCE

Site Civil Design

● Full site civil design including grading, paving, and public road access

● Existing approved detention plans reused — eliminating redesign time and accelerating permitting with the City of Katy

● Retaining wall installed on the challenging grade-change side of the site — faster and less costly than regrading the full site

● Floodplain fill mitigated on-site; full site area preserved for development

Utility Infrastructure

● Water and sanitary sewer tied into City of Katy's existing municipal system

● No utility extension required — existing infrastructure accessible from the site

Stormwater & Drainage

● Detention plans reused from a previously approved project — same criteria, same agency, same standards — eliminating a full design cycle and compressing the city review timeline

● Floodplain fill mitigation handled entirely on-site

● Storm sewer approved by the City of Katy

Permitting & Agency Coordination

● City of Katy permitting accelerated by reusing previously approved detention design — reviewers familiar with the approach, fewer comments, faster approval

● Retaining wall solution resolved grade change issue in design before submittal — no field conditions requiring plan revisions mid-review

THE CHALLENGE

The Cane Island site had two issues that needed resolving before construction could start: a significant grade change on one side of the property, and the time cost of designing a new detention system from scratch. Both had faster, smarter solutions available — if the engineer knew where to look.

JRH's Approach

JRH recognized that previously approved detention plans from a comparable Katy project could be applied here — same jurisdiction, same drainage criteria, same approval process. Reusing those plans eliminated an entire design phase and shortened the city's review timeline because the approach was already familiar. For the grade change, rather than re-grading the entire site — which would have required significant earthwork, time, and cost — JRH specified a retaining wall on the affected side. One targeted solution resolved the topographic constraint without disrupting the rest of the site.

The Result

A fully permitted, 16.1-acre office condo business park delivered faster than a ground-up design approach — with the grade challenge solved at a fraction of the cost of full-site regrading.

RESULTS

● Permitting accelerated by reusing previously approved detention plans — no redesign cycle, faster city review

● Grade change resolved with a targeted retaining wall — significantly less earthwork cost than full-site regrading

● Full 16.1 acres preserved for development — floodplain mitigation handled on-site