Research Forest Drive, Grogan's Mill Road to see lane closures as new pipes are installed
Construction could begin as early as May on the San Jacinto River Authority's Groundwater Reduction Plan transmission line in The Woodlands, which will affect traffic flow on Research Forest Drive and Grogan's Mill Road until the project is completed in 2014.
The goal of the project is to use surface water from Lake Conroe to reduce the county's dependency on groundwater by 30 percent by Jan. 1, 2016, plan administrator Mark Smith said. Once the project is complete, Conroe, The Woodlands, Oak Ridge North and unincorporated areas of south Montgomery County will receive a portion of the 22.4 million gallons of daily pumped surface water from Lake Conroe.
With a total budget of $500 million, Smith said the project should cost about $488 million with the majority of funding coming from bonds issued through the Texas Water Development Board. However, the bonds are a debt that must be paid back through fees passed on to local water users over a 30-year term.
Without an additional source, Smith said, groundwater wells in the county's Evangeline and Jasper aquifers will dry up as a result of area population growth.
"If you take the current demand and the projected demand, the projected demand has certain wells going dry," Smith said. "There's not enough water in the aquifers to supply the demand that is projected. What this project means for Montgomery County is that it keeps the county financially viable. It keeps the water resource the county needs to continue to grow."
With construction already underway on the water treatment plant in Conroe, Smith said, individual sections of the 55 miles of pipeline will soon be reviewed by the SJRA board of directors and bid out to contractors. About 90 percent of the design has been completed, and construction on pipelines to be laid in The Woodlands could begin in May.
The entire transmission line should be completed by 2014, but the construction schedule of each section has not been finalized, Smith said. The SJRA could begin distributing surface water to county users by June 2015.
Traffic concerns
The four-lane section of Research Forest Drive near FM 2978 will have one lane closed as the pipeline is installed beneath the road's shoulder, Smith said. However, as Research Forest Drive turns into six lanes farther east, pipeline will be installed beneath the pavement, forcing traffic to the westbound side of the six-lane thoroughfare.
"The benefit to going under the pavement is it really gives our contractor a lot of room to work," Smith said. "If we can close off that section of road that he's working on, he can get in, dig trenches, lay pipe and get out."
Montgomery County officials asked that the recently constructed lanes of Research Forest Drives not be dug up, Smith said, so only older sections of the eastbound road will be removed and repaved afterward. The project similarly helps the county on Grogan's Mill Road, where the southbound lanes will be repaved after the installation.
"It was a win-win for us," Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said.
Noack said the re-paving of Grogan's Mill Road, one of the precinct's older roads, was a $20 million project to be funded in the 2010 bond referendum turned down by Montgomery County voters.
This project will repave the southbound lanes at no cost to the county, although it will be taxpayer-funded through water bills, he said.
Nearby residents of each pipeline section will receive a notice in the mail when the project is approved for construction stating who the contractor is and where and when construction will begin and end, Smith said.
The SJRA and county have worked together to ensure sections of the pipeline are built within a specific time frame, Smith said. The section of Research Forest Drive near The Woodlands High School and other sections of Grogan's Mill Road near schools can only be constructed during the summer months. Additionally, Grogan's Mill Road between Woodlands Parkway and Research Forest Drive can only be constructed between January and April as to avoid creating more traffic congestion during the holiday shopping season and events like Memorial Hermann Ironman Texas.
Smith said major intersections will not be closed for construction, as contractors will use a tunneling technique to avoid affecting those intersections.
Results of change
It has yet to be determined by the SJRA how much groundwater or surface water customers will use in any given month.
Faced with a $488 million cost for the project, the SJRA is paying off its bonds through fees from county water users over 30 years. Users can expect to pay at least an additional $3.65 per 1,000 gallons of water they use once the groundwater reduction plan is implemented in their area.
Jim Stinson, president of The Woodlands Joint Powers Association, said the organization has not determined future water rates, but the rates will increase based on usage while combining surface and groundwater fees to create one rate.
If The Woodlands does not use groundwater one month, he said, it is possible there would be no groundwater usage fee that month.
With The Woodlands using about 10 million gallons a day during the winter and as much as 38 million gallons a day during the summer, Stinson said, the 37 groundwater wells will be used primarily in the summer or in case of damage to the surface water distribution system.
"Research from the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District indicates that Montgomery County is pumping more water from underground aquifers than is being recharged," Stinson said. "This practice will result in a host of undesirable conditions including lost storage capacity in the aquifer, land subsidence, increased pumping cost and water quality degradation."
Oak Ridge North City Manager Vicky Rudy said the city will use surface water for 30 percent of its water needs.
"We're part of a larger community where the source of water is diminishing," she said. "We're happy to partner with the community to make sure there's enough water for Montgomery County for years to come."
Rudy said the pipeline construction will come through Maplewood Drive, to Robinson Road, where the city's water plant is located. She said construction along Maplewood Drive could begin in the spring.
