The only piece of the Grand Parkway that is free is likely getting bigger.
The Texas Department of Transportation, which maintains most of the giant third loop road in the Houston region, plans to add a third lane in each direction along Texas 99, the road’s technical name, from the Westpark Tollway north to Interstate 10. Pending various approvals and funding being available, work would start in late 2022, and take about two years. Officials expect construction to take two years.
Officials on Thursday posted a video and environmental report for the project. Public comments on the proposal will be accepted until Sept. 17.
Effects on the environment, according to TxDOT’s report, would be minimal because the widening will be contained to land the state already owns by building in the large grassy median of the freeway. Analysts found the project affects less than 0.01 acres of wetland.
Traffic noise was the most common concern when discussions of widening the road began in 2017. An analysis found a dozen sound walls were warranted, though eight of them will require coordination with the local municipal utility district.
Though the most high-profile freeway projects in Houston have faced skepticism in the past few years — businesses and residents fretted over the lengthy widening work along U.S. 290 and groups currently are fighting a proposed widening of Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston — plans to widen Texas 99 have the support of local leaders and area neighborhood groups.
“Being a two-lane road just doesn’t serve the people in that area,” said Robert Pechukas, director of policy and administration for Fort Bend County Precinct Three Commissioner Andy Meyers.
Pechukas said even during the COVID pandemic, when traffic volumes dipped considerably, use of the segment of Texas 99 through Cinco Ranch and other nearby communities remained high. As a result, he said, county officials consider the planned widening a high priority.
The parkway, long sought by local officials as key to the Houston area’s development, has a history of dividing suburban and urban advocates. As TxDOT and local officials championed construction, critics warned the road would exacerbate Houston’s outward growth and cover grasslands critical to flood control with concrete.
The effects of Hurricane Harvey, which dumped 51 inches of rain on the region four years ago, flooded large parts of the area south of I-10 along the Grand Parkway that officials are planning to widen.
Two additional projects by the county, if built, would add to the road expansion along Texas 99. Officials plan to add frontage roads where none exist now between Fry Road and the Westpark Tollway and from Cinco Ranch Road to Westheimer Parkway. Those projects would take open land and cover some of it with concrete.
The work in Fort Bend County is just the most recent along Grand Parkway, which has driven explosive growth around its more than 70 miles of completed roadway from Interstate 69 near Sugar Land, through western and northern Harris County and to I-69 near New Caney.
The tollway is only getting bigger, with crews in the fourth year of a project adding another 53 miles from I-69 east and south through Montgomery, Liberty and Chambers counties to Baytown. The project, accelerated by thinning it to just one lane in each direction from east of I-69 in Liberty County to just north of Mont Belvieu, allows for some traffic moving from I-10 to I-45 to round the region entirely. Like previous segments, the portion now under construction will be tolled.
When the new segments open, perhaps mid-2022 based on current schedules, crews will have completed more than 120 miles of the ring road, with roughly 60 more to go. State and local officials in Brazoria and Galveston counties have said the remaining portions remain priorities, but opponents argue flooding and development concerns following Hurricane Harvey should lead to a rethinking of the road’s merit.
dug.begley@chron.com
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Houston’s Grand Parkway is getting third lane along free stretch in Cinco Ranch - Houston Chronicle
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