The San Jacinto River Authority is working with The Woodlands Township and The Woodlands Development Company to restore trees and foliage that were removed in medians throughout the community during the ongoing pipeline construction project.



Construction crews cut through medians at several locations along Research Forest Drive and Grogan's Mill Road to allow traffic changes to alternate lanes.



The SJRA has signed an agreement with Montgomery County Precinct 3 to restore the uprooted landscape. The SJRA is now coordinating an interlocal agreement to fund reforestation efforts that would allow township and Development Company officials to manage the reforestation project.



"We met with them with the idea that hopefully we can do an agreement where basically their landscape contractor does the restoration and we pay for it," said SJRA Groundwater Reduction Plan administrator Mark Smith. "On our side I am working on the agreement, they are working with their landscape contractor on getting a cost estimate."



Once the agreements are in place, he said, replanting efforts could begin in October when the climate is more conducive to planting trees.



"Hopefully we will start that reforestation this fall and winter at the best time because we don't want to plant trees in the middle of a hot drought," he said.



The SJRA has laid most of the pipeline in The Woodlands associated with its groundwater reduction plan project that will draw water from Lake Conroe.



The SJRA only recently started construction along Grogan's Mill Road and Research Forest Drive near area school zones.



Construction in those areas should be complete and traffic fully restored by Aug. 25, in time for the first day of classes, according to the SJRA.



Matt Corley, SJRA compliance supervisor, said all of The Woodlands contract work will be completed by October, with the exception of a section starting along Rayford Road, where construction is crossing into Oak Ridge North. The pipeline project there is being done along existing drainage ditches and easements, minimizing the effect on traffic, Corley said.



As a part of permit contingencies, Smith said the SJRA will also work on reforestation efforts in Oak Ridge North once construction is complete.



"Because our project is on property that is actually owned by Oak Ridge North, we had to get easement permits from them and they made replacing some of those trees a part of their contingency," Smith said. "We don't just do trees in The Woodlands, we do them in other places, so we are going to replace trees in Oak Ridge North as well."