Harris County approved the low bid for Bear Creek Village drainage in August. Tuesday it votes to swap contractors for $333,288 more.

On August 6 Harris County Commissioners Court gave the Bear Creek Village drainage job to the low bidder. On Tuesday the court is asked to take it back and hand it to a different company for $333,288 more. The agenda does not say why.

Why it matters

Bear Creek Village is one of the subdivisions Harvey hit hardest. The county’s own 2023 announcement put roughly 1,400 homes under water there, nearly 60 percent of the single family houses in the subdivision.

Stage B is the construction that is supposed to fix it. Residents pay for it either way. The reason for the switch is the one thing the paperwork leaves out.

By the numbers

$15,417,732, the award Commissioners Court approved on August 6, 2026 to Precise Services, Inc. The agenda described it as an award “on the basis of low bid meeting specifications.”
$15,751,020, the replacement award to V&S Construction Company on Tuesday’s agenda, item 116.
$333,288, the difference. That is 2.2 percent more.
47 days between the two votes.
25.62 percent, the MWBE contracting goal, identical on both items, which suggests the scope did not change.
$20.2 million, what the county announced in June 2023 as the cost of the entire Bear Creek Village project, split $10.1 million from the Harris County Engineering Department and $10.1 million from Harris County Utility District No. 6.
More than 200 structures get reduced flood risk from the project, by the county’s own count.

The other side

Rescinding an award is routine procurement. A low bidder can fail to post bonds or insurance, can withdraw, or can be found non-responsible after the vote. Two percent is inside the noise on a $15 million contract, and holding the MWBE goal steady points to the same job rather than a bigger one.

All of that is fair, and all of it is inference. The agenda states the action and the number and stops. On a project the county says protects more than 200 structures, the reason a contractor was replaced 47 days after the award is not a procedural footnote. It is the sentence that tells a resident whether $333,288 bought anything.

What to watch

Tuesday, September 22, 9 a.m., 1001 Preston. Item 116 on the Business Court agenda. Whether any member asks for the reason on the record.
An updated project total. The 2023 figure was $20.2 million for all stages. The Stage B construction contract alone is now $15.75 million, about 78 percent of that original total. Neither agenda item states a revised total.
A construction start date. In June 2023 the county said Stage B was waiting on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting. That was three years ago.

Bottom line

The number is small. The silence is not. Harris County is about to pay $333,288 more for the same job, seven weeks after telling residents it had the low bid, and the document asking for the money does not say what changed.

People who flooded in Harvey are owed the sentence the agenda left out.