In a March 19 meeting, officials with the 249 Partnership from Tomball, Magnolia and Navasota provided updates on the construction of the Tomball Tollway and future phases of the Hwy. 249 expansion project.

The 249 Partnership, which is chaired by Magnolia City Councilwoman Anne Sundquist, meets every few months to improve lines of communication between officials in the three cities along the route of the future Hwy. 249 expansion project.

Plans for the roadway expansion starting in Tomball north to Hwy. 105 in Grimes County have been on the books with the Texas Department of Transportation since 2000, according to TxDOT documents. The project is now in the draft environmental impact stage and must go through engineering and environmental studies before construction can begin within the next two years, TxDOT officials said.

David Hamilton, Tomball Tollway program manager with engineering firm Binkley & Barfield Inc., said the construction of the first phase of the Hwy. 249 expansion project—known as the Tomball Tollway—is scheduled to open to traffic by the end of April. The city of Tomball is sponsoring a Stroll the Toll public event April 12 from 2-4 p.m. on the new roadway.

"That's going to be a walkathon—you'll be able to walk the full segment of the tollway that has not been opened up yet," Hamilton said. "It's going to be a time to celebrate what's been done out there."

Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal said construction on the next phases of the expansion project in Harris and Montgomery counties is scheduled to begin in August 2016 and finish in August 2018.

Design plans for Phase 2 of the project will begin in June from the end of the new Tomball Tollway near Brown Road north to Spring Creek, Hamilton said. Montgomery County officials also plan to develop design plans for the next phase of the project from north of Spring Creek to Pinehurst in early summer, Doyal said.

"We want to match the time schedule [of] Harris County, so both projects coincide with the completion of the bypass at Tomball all the way up to Pinehurst," he said.