Although specific funding sources and construction timelines are unknown for the recommended projects, the study outlines the precinct’s needs for roadways, safety enhancements and transit upgrades, according to the H-GAC and a draft study shared in August.
“Infrastructure, education, water and transportation were the top four agenda item priorities [in the 1950s],” said Scott Harper, president of the Conroe and Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce. “I would be willing to bet those are the same things happening now and need the attention just because of the growth of this area.”
This is the first mobility study done specifically for Precinct 2, although a thoroughfare plan was conducted in 2016 for the county as a whole and updated in 2021, according to H-GAC Project Manager Carlene Mullins and previous Community Impact reporting. Precinct 2 spans southwest Montgomery County from Magnolia to the western Conroe area.
Riley contacted the H-GAC in 2018 about doing the study, and Mullins said it began in September 2020 after two years were spent securing funding from the Texas Department of Transportation.
The H-GAC identified mobility needs and conducted a roadway inventory before its first public meeting April 22, 2021, according to the study’s website. A revised draft was presented in August, and the study is expected to be finalized in October or November with minor changes, Mullins said.
Some of the projects called for in the study include extending the widening of FM 1488 to I-45, building upon the widening already underway from the Waller County line to FM 149; updating signal timings on roads; and adding roundabouts in Conroe.
“A lot of improvements that were included in the study was recommending some signal work in some places, which would improve mobility,” Riley said. “A lot of it was expanding certain TxDOT roads; a lot of it was turn lanes that are not there today that certainly help mobility, and a lot of it was adding lanes and adding shoulders and adding that type of [improvement] to roads.”
While some of the roads in the study are maintained by the state, many of them are county maintained, and Riley said a future bond referendum to fund those county road projects could be possible.
A growing county
In 2020, Montgomery County had a population of 620,443, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s decennial census. That is 6,492 more people than projected in a 2018 report by the Texas Demographics Center, which produces, interprets and publishes state demographic data.
The TDC also predicted that by 2040, the county will reach a population of 1.11 million residents.
Precinct 2 reached 139,100 residents in 2018—a 26% increase since 2010—and is projected to more than double to 291,100 residents by 2040, according to the H-GAC.
“Growth in the North Houston region continues to progress north and northwest,” North Houston Association President Marlisa Briggs said in an interview. “We’ve got so many new developments [and] communities, and our population just keeps increasing.”
As the population increases, so too does the number of cars on the roads. In 2021, 580,774 cars were registered in Montgomery County, which is a 31.5% increase from 2012, according to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles.
Riley said he attributes part of the growth of the county to the mobility changes that have already been made in Precinct 2, such as the improvements to Hwy. 249 and Grand Pines Drive in the Magnolia area.
“All of the improvements that we’ve made throughout this Precinct 2—that’s why they’re coming here,” Riley said.
Projects in Conroe, Montgomery
Conroe- and Montgomery-area roadway projects in the study range from restripings and widenings to adding new roads and extending existing ones.
A few big-ticket recommendations in the mobility study include Old Conroe Road projects. Four projects to construct a loop from Hwy. 105 to Old Conroe Road that loops around to meet up with I-45 as well as Grand Central Parkway—which involves both county- and state-maintained roads—are estimated to cost $101.34 million.
An additional $14.2 million project is recommended for the Old Conroe Road extension from FM 1488 to Sgt. Ed Holcombe Boulevard, which is under federal review, Community Impact previously reported. The project, alongside a $31.75 million widening of the existing Old Conroe Road, are slated to be needed within 10 years.
In an interview, Conroe Mayor Jody Czajkoski said he believes the Old Conroe Road projects are necessary as drivers need a major thoroughfare connecting the northern stretch of the county to south county. Czajkoski said due to traffic on I-45, a new route is needed to not only alleviate traffic, but also ensure first responders have a safe route.
“Anyone that lives at Loop 336 South, ... they are going to have a straight route to The Woodlands,” Czajkoski said. “They won’t have to get on the interstate; they’ll go straight from their home.”
For residents in the Montgomery area, Mayor Byron Sanford said in an interview he believes the city would benefit economically from a series of projects for a new road named Ben Smith Road and a loop south of the city crossing FM 149 that would connect with Keenan Cutoff Road to the east and west. The projects total $82.65 million and are expected to be needed in 11 or more years, according to the study.
Sanford said projects within the mobility study align with his goal to ease mobility within the city as they are projected to relieve congested areas such as Hwy. 105.
“We have timing we are concerned with, and we have development we are concerned for,” Sanford said. “From my standpoint, [Hwy.] 105 traffic, ... I hope to get it improved. And that should obviously happen if there’s an east-west corridor that we would call the loop that gives people an ability to cross there.”
Looking forward
Mullins said most of the projects called for in the long-range mobility study were in line with TxDOT’s recommendations and ongoing projects throughout Precinct 2, and once the study is finalized, it will be turned over to Riley and his office.
Riley said after receiving the finalized study, he and his office will review it and determine the next steps for projects to be considered.••“We’re not going to go out here and just start building roads just because they say this needs to be done,” Riley said. “It is going to be on an as-needed basis.”
To help fund projects recommended in the study, Riley said he sees the need for a future county road bond. Voters last approved a $280 million road bond in 2015, according to previous reporting.
“I haven’t talked to any of the other commissioners or the judge, ... but I think right after the first of the new year, we’re going to have to get serious about talking about figuring out a way to fund some of these projects,” Riley said. “A road bond is going to be about the only way we’re going to be able to do what we need to do in Montgomery County.”
Some projects could also be funded from the county’s toll road revenue, which has somewhere around $14 million to spend for roadway projects, Riley said.
“Every project on that study is one that we may or may not do,” Riley said. “We know that the majority of them may be done, but you’re talking [about] billions of dollars that they recommended in this study, and that’s always the biggest challenge we have is where we’re going to get the funding and who’s going to step up and help fund these projects.”
Find the full list of recommended projects here.
