Montgomery County—in partnership with the Houston-Galveston Area Council and the city of Conroe—is conducting a thoroughfare plan to address the county's current and future road needs as a result of the growth and development in the area.

"The thoroughfare plan gives us a chance to look at where our major thoroughfares need to go and need to be," Montgomery County Precinct 2 Commissioner Craig Doyal said. "We just need to get a better feel for exactly what we need to be preparing for."

The purpose of the plan, he said, is to identify corridors that need to be preserved, identify new corridors that need to be created as different changes in growth patterns occur, as well as put a priority on roads and projects that need to be addressed first as money comes available.

As growth and development continues to expand into Montgomery County, Doyal said the plan is needed to increase mobility throughout the county.

"The challenge we have got is that we are about 500,000 people right now and in the next 15-20 years we are expected to be at a million people," Doyal said. "We have got to today begin to identify and construct some of those corridors or we are going to be at gridlock. We are almost there now."

The thoroughfare plan will cost $400,000 to complete, with Montgomery County and the city of Conroe each paying $50,000 and the H-GAC paying $300,000, Doyal said.

The last thoroughfare plan the county conducted was in 1985. Since then there have been a couple of updates to the plan, but this is the first major revisiting of the entire plan, Doyal said.

The study will make sure the roadways in the county are able to efficiently serve the population both now and in the future, said Alan Clark, director of transportation planning for H-GAC.

"The primary reason for this study is to reassess how well the county will be positioned to support its growth and development, and there may need to be attention focused both short-term and long-term to make sure the county can continue to prosper," Clark said.

A consultant company will be used for the study to analyze available data on travel activity in the county, accident data, congestion and growth trends in the county, Clark said. This data will be used to develop a scope of the county's needs. The consultant company will gauge comments and information gathered from within the community to guide its work as well, he said. A draft of the study is expected in October or November 2014.