The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) awarded Harris County and Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) more than $10 million to support transportation infrastructure projects that aim to enhance resiliency against climate change.   The announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration's broader initiative, the Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost-saving Transportation (PROTECT) program, established under the Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. PROTECT will fund nearly $830 million in grants for 80 projects nationwide.   According to DOT, Harris County will receive more than $9.6 million to develop a master plan evaluating drainage infrastructure capacity of local roadways within the county’s unincorporated areas that are experiencing rapid growth and frequent flooding. Meanwhile, H-GAC is set to receive $1.1 million to create a Resilience Improvement Plan for transportation systems across the eight-county region that are prone to severe weather, natural disasters and flooding.   “Every community in America knows the impacts of climate change and extreme weather, including increasingly frequent heavy rain and flooding events across the country and sea-level rise that is inundating infrastructure in coastal states,” said Shailen Bhatt of the Federal Highway Administration in a statement. “This investment from the Biden-Harris Administration will ensure our infrastructure is built to withstand more frequent and unpredictable extreme weather, which is vitally important for people and businesses that rely on roads and bridges being open to keep our economy moving.”   As a city that has experienced six federally declared flooding disasters since 2015, these projects are critical to Houston’s prosperity. To further advance public policies like PROTECT, the Greater Houston Partnership recently visited Washington, D.C., to advocate for the use of funds from the new Community Development Block Grant Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) program, which would provide billions of dollars for flood mitigation projects in the Houston region.  Additionally, alongside federal, state and local elected officials, the Partnership has actively been working to propel the coastal barrier project, also known as Ike Dike, forward. This crucial infrastructure project, which is on the verge of being authorized by Congress, will help mitigate crippling flooding from catastrophic storm surges and save tens of billions of dollars in disaster recovery funding by protecting vulnerable communities. The barrier will also safeguard the Houston Ship Channel, which serves as an economic engine helping to power the nation.   Learn more about the Partnership’s Public Policy Efforts.  

Houston-area FluxWorks is evolving magnetic gear technology, promising efficiency and reliability across industries. Led by CEO Dr. Bryton Praslicka, FluxWorks leverages over a decade of research to revolutionize gear technology, with applications spanning from renewable energy to space exploration. “NASA funded us to develop a gearbox for the next-generation Lunar Rover to go to the dark side of the moon,” said Dr. Bryton Praslicka, CEO of FluxWorks. “We needed to make a gearbox as lightweight and robust as possible while also withstanding extreme conditions—low temperatures, low atmosphere, and hard vacuum. That’s where my first patent came along.” The company’s magnetic gear designs bring 99% efficiency and are four times quieter than their conventional counterparts. Instead of mechanical teeth, the gears rely on magnetic forces to transfer power—eliminating the need for lubrication, reducing maintenance requirements, and dramatically improving reliability. Beyond his patent-pending design innovations, Praslicka emphasized how FluxWorks builds on existing electric motor manufacturing techniques and supply chains to enable rapid scalability. “Our unparalleled magnetic gear expertise means we can quickly get to market by retrofitting existing systems that already have electric motors, that already have gearboxes,” said Praslicka. “That’s one of the really exciting opportunities about our technology.” With this innovative business model in place, the company placed second at the Houston Energy Transition Initiative Energy Ventures Pitch Competition at CERAWeek, the world’s premiere energy conference, and took home the grand prize at the 2023 Rice Business Plan Competition hosted by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and Jones Graduate School of Business. The FluxWorks team was also selected as the Water Power Technologies Office Bonus Prize Winner at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) EnergyTech UP competition. "FluxWorks gearboxes deliver breakthrough performance with minimal maintenance, making them ideal for extreme applications and remote locations where uptime is critical,” said Praslicka. The company aims to bring its lab-proven magnetic gears to real-world environments by field testing its technology in subsea wave energy conversion, onshore wind turbines, the International Space Station (ISS), and more. "Our innovative gearboxes have unprecedented reliability,” said Praslicka. “With a lifespan of up to 25 years, we can drastically minimize operational and maintenance costs for our customers. Our vision is to use magnetic gears to unlock a technology’s full potential.” Discover Houston's evolving industries.