Officials with the Texas Department of Transportation invited local representatives to a Jan. 29 sneak preview event for the newest Grand Parkway segments, which will open to drivers from Hwy. 290 to I-45 North on Feb. 6.[/caption]

Updated Feb. 5 at 2:35 p.m.:


Segments of the Grand Parkway will open sooner than expected, according to city and transportation officials.

During a Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Feb. 5, Tomball Mayor Gretchen Fagan announced that parts of the Grand Parkway segments F-1 and F-2 opened this afternoon.

“At midnight last night, I was told by someone at TxDOT that they actually anticipate that it’s actually going to open at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning,” Fagan said. “But, as I walked in the door [today], I was told it opened 35 minutes ago on the westbound lanes. The eastbound lanes are going to open at 3 [p.m.] this afternoon.”

David Gornet, executive director of the Grand Parkway Association, said segments F-1 and F-2, which span from Hwy. 290 to I-45, will open officially at 5 a.m. Feb. 6. Gornet could not confirm any earlier openings.

Posted Feb. 3 at 5:10 p.m.: Segment G—which will run 14 miles from I-45 to Hwy. 59 North—is projected to open to drivers late March, TxDOT Public Information Officer Raquelle Lewis said.

“It's taking us just under three years to construct 38 miles of highway of which we had little to no right of way when we started,” TxDOT Project Manager Greg Snider said. “That’s almost a mile per month. With 120 bridges, we were building about one bridge per week, some of which are a mile long. It was quite a massive undertaking.”

A driver traveling at the posted Grand Parkway speed limit of 70 miles per hour will travel from Hwy. 249 to I-45 in about 10 minutes, from Hwy. 290 to I-45 in about 20 minutes and from I-10 West to I-45 in about 32 minutes.

The Grand Parkway was designed to have intermittent frontage roads that mainly serve to provide access to the roadway, but developers have expressed interest in having more frontage roads built or extended, Snider said.

“At Northcrest [Drive] will likely be one of the first locations where that happens,” he said. “The problem with that is the frontage roads can be seen as a competing facility, and when the road is financed with bond proceeds, you have a responsibility to bond holders to make sure you’re not taking divers off the road.”

A one-mile segment of frontage road from I-45 to Holzwarth Road was also completed and opened to traffic in April 2015.

The amount of development and economic activity the Grand Parkway has already spurred has been amazing to witness, said Jeff Moseley, Commissioner of the Texas Transportation Commission.

“When you’re talking about the return on investment, you’re talking about the foundation for jobs being set, the improvement of quality of life and improving both the movement of goods and people to the workplace,” Moseley said at a Jan. 29 sneak preview event. “Even with something like air quality, the Grand Parkway’s affect on congestion could potentially bring Houston from nonattainment levels back to attainment.”

Segments F-1 and F-2 were originally scheduled to open at the end of 2015, but the opening was delayed because of heavy rainfall in 2015, TxDOT’s Houston District Engineer Quincy Allen said.

The Grand Parkway is only accessible to EZ-Tag drivers. Access points along segments F-1 and F-2 feature a 43- to 45-cent charge for vehicles with two axles. Main toll plaza charges range from 95 cents west of Hwy. 249 to $1.35 north of Hwy. 290. A full list of toll rates will be available soon at www.txtag.org.