Texas Department of Transportation Grand Parkway widening
The TxDOT project will add a third lane to the existing northbound and southbound lanes between FM 1093 and Kingsland Boulevard.
Cost: $99.5 million
Timeline: November-TBD
Grand Parkway frontage roads
Seven projects will extend the Grand Parkway’s frontage roads northbound from Fry Road to Highland Knolls Drive and southbound from Highland Knolls to FM 1093.
Cost: $90.45 million
Timeline: winter-TBD
Westpark Tollway, Grand Parkway connector
This will create two connector roads going east and westbound from Westpark Tollway to the Grand Parkway northbound.
Cost: $48 million
Timeline: January-summer
Congestion has been building along the Grand Parkway between FM 1093/Westpark Tollway and the Katy Freeway for some time, Fort Bend County officials said. Fort Bend County, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority are coordinating on three projects to alleviate the congestion.
Fort Bend Assistant County Engineer Ike Akinwande said the area is a focal point for Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales, who is pushing for accelerating the design and the construction of projects that will extend the Grand Parkway’s main lanes and add frontage roads.
Meanwhile, the FBCTRA is the managing agency behind creating two connectors going east and westbound from Westpark Tollway to the Grand Parkway northbound, FBCTRA Chief Operating Officer Mike Stone said.
“The most significant impact of [this] project will be the reduction of turning movement in the intersection, particularly the left-hand turns from eastbound to northbound,” Stone said.
Collaborative effort
The roughly $48 million Westpark Tollway to the Grand Parkway connector project aims to provide drivers easier and faster access to the parkway, FBCTRA Program Manager Phillip Smith said in an email. The project is funded by toll road revenue bonds and from partnering special districts, he said.
Though construction was initially expected to begin by mid-2020, progress was halted, and construction instead began in January and will end in summer 2024, Smith said.
Meanwhile, TxDOT is designing another Grand Parkway project that will add a third lane to the existing northbound and southbound main lanes between Westpark Tollway and Kingsland Boulevard, TxDOT Public Information Officer Deidrea George said. The roughly $99.5 million project will be sent to bid in August with construction set to start in November.
Fort Bend County is also constructing two-lane frontage roads alongside the Grand Parkway. Seven projects totaling $90.45 million will extend the northbound frontage road from Fry Road up to Highland Knolls Drive, and the southbound frontage roads will run from Highland Knolls to FM 1093.
Work will begin this winter on the first two segments: the southbound frontage roads from Westheimer Parkway to Cinco Ranch Boulevard and Fry Road to FM 1093, Akinwande said.
Other segments will begin between winter 2023 and early 2025. Fort Bend County’s 2020 mobility bond will fund much of the projects’ design, but construction funding for some segments is still being determined, he said.
