What you need to know
Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack requested the court consider improvements to the Grand Parkway to combat congestion in the area. David Balmos, vice president of WSB consulting, provided a presentation to commissioners Dec. 19 outlining $2.68 million in improvement projects on the Grand Parkway from Rayford Road to Benders Landing.
The proposed improvements include:
- Changing the Rayford Road/Grand Parkway center lane to shared thru-left turn lane
- Adding a dedicated right turn lane to Lockeridge Farm Drive
- Adding a third eastbound frontage lane from offramp to Birnham Woods Drive
- Adding a dedicated right turn lane on frontage road to Birnham Woods Drive
- Adding a third eastbound frontage road lane at offramp to Benders Landing Boulevard
- Adding a dedicated right turn lane at Lockeridge Farm Drive
Pass-through toll funding is a tool which allows the state and counties to reimburse some project costs by paying a fee for each vehicle that drives on toll roads. Montgomery County is seeking to use some of the funding collected by Montgomery county to help kickstart certain road projects.
Quote of note
“You can't always anticipate where development occurs or where the demand will occur,” Balmos said. “As such, the developments that have occurred around Rayford and Birnham Woods have exceeded the capacity of that eastbound frontage road.”
What’s next
Montgomery County will send a final letter to TxDOT outlining the project priorities for the county by the end of the year. The letter will then be used by TxDOT to rank regional project priority and begin scheduling design and potential construction timeframes.
