Go Grand Parkway Go!

Harris County and TxDOT have to abide by all the rules Developers follow regarding the mitigation of increased storm water runoff and fill in the floodplain.

The project will have to set aside space to absorb and impact to flooding that it would cause. All this will be documented and will be publicly available as in every road or private development project.

But I ask people to look at this, the F1,2 segments, and the existing segment from another angle. What if Houston didn’t exist? And you had the small towns of Rosenberg, Richmond, Sugar Land that needed a connection to Katy, Hempstead, Spring/Conroe? These cities would want some corridor built so they can connect for their own economic benefit.

This angle is to look at the Grand Parkway in a completely different way. The Grand Parkway in no way was ever conceived or meant to alleviate or supplement Houston traffic from the commuter angle. It is purely meant to be a suburban connection between centers of population and employment. If developers and the Houston region didn’t exist, the local communities would want a road to connect them to assist in growing the individual communities.

Should the expansion of the SH 242 in Montgomery County be stopped from growing to four lanes to connect I-45 to New Caney? Should many of the more rural roads in Texas that are being widened to handle increased truck traffic be stopped?

Most objections to the Grand Parkway are coming from people that are inner Houston centric and see this area this road will cross as an area that should be left natural. They see this area as adding more “bad” sprawl. The only group that truly has a stake in the segment’s path is the Katy Prairie Conservancy. The reality is that development would develop in the proposed corridor regardless of the parkway being built. The county would have continued upgrading local roads out there to handle the impact. The argument against this segment of the Grand Parkway should have also been applied to Fry Road, HWY 6, and Eldridge.

A completed Grand Parkway from US 59 (Richmond)around the west side of the region and back to US 59 on the northeast side will also serve as a bypass and divert truck traffic from traveling through Houston. The 610 loop and the Beltway have to increasingly serve more and more local traffic. Providing a bypass would pull some truck traffic off these routes. All of this is not needed to justify the Parkway’s construction. Local traffic analysis is enough to support the construction.