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The Army wants you to send the Corps of Engineers your thoughts on Segments H and I-1 of the Grand Parkway — if you can get them in order by February 1st. A public comment period, following some slight route revisions to the 37-miles-plus-a-bit-extra stretch of the in-progress outer-outer loop shown above in red, opened on December 30th. This next addition to Houston’s increasingly elaborate Saturn cosplay will run from 59 between Porter and New Caney through Montgomery, Liberty, and Chambers counties, skirting southeast of Dayton to link up with I-10 near Mont Belvieu.
Want to read up before having your say? The Final Environmental Impact Statement and associated documentation for the two segments, which collectively total 2,829 pages in pdf, have been helpfully split into 2 volumes for your perusing pleasure.
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If no 11th-hour at-the-altar objections come to light, TxDOT could start shopping around for contractors for the project later this year. Almost-finished Segments F-1, F-2, and G, which link 290 to I-45, are now being pegged for a late-March opening.
- Freeways to move deeper into suburbs in 2016
- US 59 (N) to IH 10 (E) Segments H & I-1 [Grand Parkway Association]
- Previously on Swamplot: Another Chunk of the Grand Parkway Is Open; Katy Prairie Segment of the Grand Parkway Doesn’t Even Open Until This Weekend, but They’re Already Breaking the Speed Limit on It; Three More Links in the Grand Parkway Are Now Ready To Roll; Grand Parkway coverage
Map: Grand Parkway Association
Why is the government subsidizing yet another suburban alternative? This is money that should be spent on infrastructure where people currently live rather than forcing them out by neglecting existing neighborhoods.
” …Houston’s increasingly elaborate Saturn cosplay”
…clap… clap …clap
from swamplot’s new pros rose poetry in place of prose
The fact that this section of the GPrkwy is about to get built is ridiculous.
There is zero need for a two lane tollway through the most rural of portion of the greater Houston area. Hell, the section of the beltway in NE Houston wasn’t even completed until 7 years ago or so. If TXDot was truly worried about preparing for future growth, then they’d just build frontage rds or secure ROW. No reputable traffic model would show a need for a tollroad in liberty county.
The cost for this boondoggle is going to be close to $880 million last I checked. $880 million so that Exxon employees can drive from their campus to their Baytown refinery? Is their much Baytown / Mt. Belleview to New Caney and onward traffic? Considering the dire needs for roads that people are actually using (how many of the states’ most congested roads does Houston have?), how much better would that $ be if it was directed to 610 west or the southwest freeway?
At least segment E connected two busy freeways (290 and I10) as it cut through farmland and the Katy prairie. 59, 90, and I10 east are some of the least congested roads in all of Houston!
If this isn’t the most blatant handout to developers at the expense of the taxpayer, I don’t know what is. This is crony capitalism. Why aren’t all the fiscal conservatives in the legislature fighting this?
The fact that its a tollroad only adds insult to injury.
I totally agree with DNAguy …. securing the right-of-way is the only reasonable course of action at this time. A better use of the money, if it JUST has to be spent in Houston’s eastern hinterlands (due to politically motivated necessities), would be to complete US-90 east’s access to 610.
I agree that there’s no tangible need for grand parkway out there, on the other hand I’ve owned a few hundred acres by Dayton that now have doubled in price in the last 5 years because of the anticipation of GP, so who am I to argue.
@WR 610-to-90 has been complete for years now. The only gap left remaining before Crosby is the bridge over Greens Bayou, where the feeder bridges are more than sufficient..
Just adding more sprawl, reducing farmland, reducing habitat.
Resources are best devoted to support people living in a more dense environment.
There’s no need for the Grand Parkway on the NE side of Houston, as long as you remain stubbornly short sighted and ignore history. Of course we all like farm land and woods and would love to see that remain but the fact is that the population of Houston is continuing to grow and almost certainly will do so in a sprawling manner. With a new road from Spring to Dayton and on to Baytown, the developers will come and then there will be plenty of travelers to utilize this ‘unnecessary road’.
Nailed in @DNAguy!