The completed lane expansion of Woodlands Parkway between Grogan's Mill Road and South Panther Creek Drive has been delayed yet again. Menade Inc., the contractor working on the project, now expects to complete the 1-mile expansion and open all lanes by June 16.

Menade President Jerry Wade previously said the project would be completed by April, but more delays have pushed the completion back at least another two months. Eastbound lanes opened to traffic in late March, and Menade is now working to complete Phase II of the project, the one lane westbound expansion over Lake Woodlands.

The Texas Department of Transportation is the agency managing the Woodlands Parkway expansion.

"TxDOT would not let [Menade] do any work on the westbound lanes until they finished the eastbound side," The Woodlands Township director Mike Bass said.

Wade did not return messages from Community Impact Newspaper for comment on this story.

The 1-mile expansion of Woodlands Parkway from Grogan's Mill Road to South Panther Creek Drive has been plagued with problems and delays essentially from the start.

Construction was initially to start in early 2011, but it did not begin until November 2012.

It took Menade 16 months to finish the eastbound lane expansion. In a previous interview, Wade said there were problems with drilling into the Lake Woodlands dam, which is composed of rock. He also said there were problems with the project's design, and cold temperatures this winter caused delays.

The most recent status report provided by TxDOT shows the project was 43 percent complete as of March 4. The contract with Menade stated the expansion was to be complete in 246 days.

"If you look at the most recent report, [Menade] had only accomplished less than 5 percent of the total project in the last month," Bass said.

He said he doubted Menade could then finish the remaining 50 percent in three months.

TxDOT spokeswoman Deidrea Samuels said Menade is being charged $785 per day that it has exceeded its deadline. As of March 26, Menade had been charged $48,670. If Menade completes the project by June 16, it will have been 120 past the agreed-upon date and will have been charged more than $94,000.

"It's all a matter of if [Wade] is willing to pay his liquidated damages," Bass said. "If so, there's nothing they can do about it."

Samuels said the liquidated damages are being assessed to Menade through the monthly bill TxDOT receives from Menade each month.

Bass said the township has put pressure on TxDOT to change contractors on the Woodlands Parkway expansion.

"Every time we have pushed back to TxDOT on this issue, they have basically told us they are not willing to change the contractor," Bass said.

Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said the county is meeting with TxDOT and Menade every two weeks to get a status report on the project.