It may not happen...for now

Since the March 29th Town Hall Meeting with the HGAC, it would seem that issue of new toll roads has died down quite a bit for our area. Unfortunately this is not true for other areas around town. The Citizen’s Transportation Coalition (CTC) was on announced that on Fri June 17, Harris County released the new 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) which identifies the next 5-7 priority toll road corridors. The document is available on paper at the county office downtown but is not available online.

Tues June 21 at 9:00 am, the Harris County commissioners were expected to approve the plan at the only scheduled public hearing. Commissioners are then expected to vote at the 10:00 a.m. Commissioners' Court meeting to authorize $192,295 for traffic and feasibility studies for the new priority toll roads.

The process was remarkably fast and had no public notice and no mention by the press, not allowing the public to be learn about the plan or participate in the planning process.

The new plan contains 5 "priority" toll roads for Harris:

1. Beltway East Mainlanes: Wilber Smith Associates will be requested to update a traffic and revenue study and provide an investment grade level analysis for the project. An agreement with the Texas Department of Transportation will also be required.
   
2. Brazoria County Toll Road: This project would connect the City of Alivin to SH 288 south of Pearland and continue on SH 288 to a point inside IH 610, and potentially to US 59. An investment grade study and agreements with Brazoria County and the Texas Department of Transportation will be needed.
   
3. Grand Parkway, Segment E.: This project, which is almost ready for final design and right of way acquisition, will require an investment grade analysis and an agreement with TxDOT.
   
4. Hardy Toll Road Extension: The road would be extended from IH 610 to downtown. Final design is underway. A projection of traffic and revenue will be prepared along with an agreement with TxDOT. Subject to the state, connections by the Hardy Extension are to be made with the Elysian Viaduct into downtown and southbound to US 59.
   
5. Hempstead Road Managed Lanes. The lanes would go from Jones Road to IH 10. An investment grade study will be needed along with an agreement with TxDOT. The agreement would include standards and timing for the state's improvements to US 290.

Click here for more information.

In the meantime, the CTC is working to make the press and the public aware of toll road plans that will affect neighborhoods as well as the lack of public accountability in toll road planning.

New toll road and highway lanes are not the target of opposition here, merely the method, or lack thereof in the public awareness, comment and involvement in the planning process of the roads and new necessarily the construction itself. Again, anyone that has ever driven the highways during rush-hour knows that more drive lanes are needed. The unfortunate circumstance in this scenario is that the plan does not only involve the addition of highway miles. Many of these miles are going to come right through our neighborhoods in the form of wider and longer local thoroughfares. This is true for all areas of Houston, and it significantly impacts the quality of living for Houston’s neighborhoods.

Inside the plan, the projects called out that will affect Oak Forest are broken down like this:

As you can see from the chart, Oak Forest will be substantially affected by the HGAC’s proposal, not only by the addition of more roads and traffic, but also by the potential that eminent domain must be considered to widen some of the roads. Oak Forest resident’s could stand to loose several hundred homes from the neighborhood.

The HGAC will implement these plans through the local governments with the revenue to construct the projects. In our case those groups are the City of Houston and Harris County. The public will get revealed these projects in three year intervals through the HGAC’s TIP (Transportation Improvement Program). It is very similar to the City of Houston’s CIP (Capital Improvement Plan)

The only street affected in the upcoming TIP 2006-2008 is Ella. Ella will be widened from 2 to 4 lanes from Pinemont to West Little York and north of that to have Ella extended in separate pieces to eventually make the road continuous from 610 north to FM 2920. This work will occur like on all other streets, in fragmented intervals over many years that will eventually lead to the long commuter thoroughfare, similar in stature and traffic volume to Westheimer and Richmond.

Although the project has been removed from HCTRA’s scope of upcoming work, the largest potential future threat is the Northwest Corridor Tollway. This project would bring 4 new lanes of elevated street traffic down from Tomball through the existing BNSF rail line and terminate at TC Jester and 610. Right now the city is still as powerless as we are to stop a toll road coming through the city, unless the proposed path involved city lands and they don't. The toll road would not have any connection to city funds now or in the future. It would all be funded by HCTRA and their issuance of bonds and toll revenue. The only way that we could have a say in the construction of a toll road would being built or not is with state legislation being passed that would allow city residents to vote up or down a toll road or its funding through the city limits. County Judge Robert Eckels has made mention that the BNSF rail line could quite possibly be converted in to commuter rail that would link up with future Metro mass transit projects. This appears to be the most viable option to have positive impact for Oak Forest and its residents.

I encourage you to stay up to date with what is going on with the CTC, see their website.

Our best tool against a decrease in the quality of life of our community is knowledge. Stay current and stay informed.

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