Two meetings open to the public on transportation for our area are worth checking out this week.
Tomorrow from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., the Houston-Galveston Area Council will present its regional transit framework study at the George Memorial Library, 1001 Golfview Drive in Richmond.
The other meeting, set for 9 a.m. Friday, is a special workshop called by the Fort Bend County Commissioners Court on Grand Parkway, which has a more direct and imminent impact on Fort Bend residents. It will be at the seventh floor of the Travis Building at 301 Jackson Street in Richmond.
Regional plan
The H-GAC study investigates transit needs for the Houston region, including Fort Bend County. The study will be part of the regional transportation plan for the next 30 years.
Residents are invited to discuss project goals and what they see as the area’s transportation needs with project consultants in an open-house format that includes exhibits, presentations and informal conversations with the study team.
According to H-GAC, the study will focus on needs and engage transit stakeholders, including local governments and the public. It includes a “detailed level of analysis of current and future transit system plans and needs, and provides recommendations for a regional decision-making framework to guide future transit policy decisions.”
The idea also is to link activity centers, enhance community mobility through a variety of modes, and create a vision for a model regional transit system.
Grand Parkway
At the Friday workshop, representatives of the Texas Department of Transportation, Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority and the Grand Parkway Association will discuss the expansion of two stretches, known as segments C and D, of the Grand Parkway with county officials.
To bring you up to speed, it was last fall when county officials decided to take over the Segment D project from the state with construction anticipated to start within two years.
The portion of the Grand Parkway to be developed in the county runs from FM 1093 to U.S. 59., which constitutes the bulk of the near 20-mile Segment D in a state plan that divides the parkway in 11 sections looping around Houston through seven counties.
County Judge Bob Hebert said tolling would be the only option to build the road as taxpayers would be opposed to county using their tax money for the project.
Officials said the project could cost from $40 million to $80 million depending on what scope the county wants to pursue.
The plan includes numerous overpasses at the parkway intersections with east-west paths such as FM 1093, U.S. 90A, Harlem Road, Mason Road and access roads to and from subdivisions along the parkway. Hebert said each overpass could cost $500,000.
Fort Bend is one of the seven counties, which also include Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Harris, Liberty and Montgomery, that has sought to take over the Grand Parkway's development.
Community concerns remain over the possible development of the parkway's Segment C, envisioned as a nearly 27-mile, four-lane toll road with intermittent frontage roads from U.S. 59 along Crabb River Road through south Fort Bend County to Texas 288.
Residents along the proposed route, including those in Greatwood, Canyon Gate at the Brazos and Bridlewood Estates, as well as business owners, have been fighting the plan for years.
However, Hebert has described the Segment C development as unlikely because there is little population and traffic in the proposed project route to justify the construction. He said the expansion “won’t happen in my lifetime.”
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Comments
No more toll roads in FBC
"County Judge Bob Hebert said tolling would be the only option to build the road as taxpayers would be opposed to county using their tax money for the project." Actually Bob the builder forgot to mention that another option exists, but not for a vendor feeder. Not building the segment seems to no longer be an option. What happened to Morrison's campaign slogan for "no toll road"???
One other bit of into too. The toll road authorities do use our
One other bit of into too. The toll road authorities do use our tax dollars everytime they take over a public road and "privatize" it. We've already paid for the up keep, ROW and maintenance. So Bob is being a typical politician on this.
Always trust a doctor......
Except when it's "Dr." Bob. Generally, it's best to expect the exact opposite of everything he promises and swears. Tollway C is absolutely unnecessary and could be for decades. The ONLY reason they want to do it now is BECAUSE NOBODY LIVES THROUGHOUT most of the planned route so land purchase/takeover will cost millions less.
However, because it makes no sense to build, it will undoubtedly be allowed/pushed to proceed, and then these same politicians who swore it would NEVER happen will be there for the groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting photo ops.
You said it Mike. We learned the hardway that our local
You said it Mike. We learned the hardway that our local conservatives aren't at all. They just want more of our money for their buddies projects.
I remember following this all last year. Hebert running around
I remember following this all last year. Hebert running around from neighborhood meeting promising them what they want, no toll road and then running back to the companies that live off these projects and telling them to be patient and just wait until things die down a bit. These guys never change!
BUILD IT NOW
You don't have to have population around the toll road for it to be needed. Our intersate system goes for huge streches without population. Segment C will be a mechanism to get around Houston without having to go through Houston. Highway 6 is a nightmare to travel for any distance. Segment C would give those of us in the South another option.
Why wait until we have to disrupt the eventual population that will suround it? Why wait to create another hurricane evacuation route? If you don't want it, why must you fight it? Let them build it before we have to move people out of the way, before nearby homeowners can claim "well I didn't know they were going to build that in my backyard". WE NEED ALL THE INFRASTRUCTURE WE CAN GET!
Yes you do.
Yes you do need population first throughout the route = that's what creates NEED, and no, it doesn't need to be overwhelming population (but you need 3,000% more than what is there right now). You especially need population when you're having taxpayers pay for the building of it and then for the use of it as well - as has been done all over the state for the past 15 years.
Your analogy of interstate systems to tollways is like comparing apples to pizza. I won't even respond to that one. As for your hurricane route for those down further south, I say build it somewhere else with your own money or else move further away from the likely major landing spots of hurricanes. Either that or use the ones that already exist - and don't wait until the last minute to leave.
As for infrastructure, Houston is already ridiculed as "Cement City" internationally, so building more unnecessary and ineffective modes of infrastructure is a waste of money - EXCEPT for the vendors who get the contracts/permissions to build the roads.
Lastly, thanks for being honest about your true identity. It ALMOST takes away the fun of disproving all your arguments...
Thats right, they pay me to post on blogs
I guess I am not a tax paying, Truck loving, Texans who needs roads.
I am actually a PR person working for the toll road authority, I get kick backs from both HCTRA and FBTRA, heh heh and they don't know about each others payments. I am also working for rural population that is hoping to sell their land for big bucks to a developer. I try to get them more money in their talks with my real employeer "X developement corp". Little do they know, I am taking money from both sides.
I get my vacation paid for by the housing construction companies, Perry pays my hotels, Meritage my airline flights, Trendmaker my dinners, and Poulte my rental cars.
Lucky my house fournishings all came from various immigrant groups that needed places to live when they moved here. I have domestic items from places like New York adn Michigan, and international items from Mexico, India, and Asia.
I am the man. All becuase I hate traffic, wasting time in traffic, and becuase I share my opnions. I am a tax paying, Truck loving, Texans.
LOL
Sounds like he knows exactly what he is talking about rounders. He must be who he claims and is trying to pass it off as sarcasm. Pretty entertaining though but it does nothing to help stop these taxpayer funded monstrosities.
Well at least he came clean and admitted it. He sounds a great deal like Hebert's chief of staff to me.
cferrell why don't you go back and have another lunch on the HCTRA/FBTRA and just charge it. LOL