League City City Council approves creating League City Parkway right turn lane onto I-45 frontage road

Balking at the amount of time it would take for construction to begin, League City City Council on Oct. 27 approved a contract that will result in a new eastbound right turn lane on League City Parkway onto the I-45 frontage road.

The right turn lane will begin 450 feet west of Butler Road and run past Calder Road to hook up with the Texas Department of Transportation right turn lane at the corner of League City Parkway and I-45.

Noticing the schedule for construction, Council Member Larry Millican asked how it would take a year for the engineering firm, JNS Engineers, to design the turn lane before construction would even begin.

Project Management Director Angie Steelman said TxDOT will need to survey the work, and the project includes land acquisition that will take time. Additionally, the project includes storm sewer adjustments, adjustments of traffic signals at Butler Road and more, according to city documents.

Millican said it is “inconceivable” that a one-lane project from 2018 Galveston County bonds will take one year before dirt is ever turned.

“I find that just unacceptable,” he said. “To me, I just—a year? Really?”

Steelman said because the project is part of an interlocal agreement with Galveston County, which picked the engineering firm, League City cannot find another engineer to do the project faster.

Council Member Andy Mann defended how long the project will take, noting it includes several jurisdictions, such as TxDOT.

Millican responded Mann ran on a platform of improving traffic citywide. Mann was elected in 2018, when the Galveston County bond that will fund the project passed, and now construction will not begin for at least a year, Millican said.

“You’ll be off the council before the damn thing gets done, Andy,” he said.

Despite Millican’s protest, the vote to approve the $221,000 project passed unanimously.