The Woodlands Township officials are looking for solutions to improve overburdened and congested major thoroughfares in the community with one caveat—the township has no control over its roadways.

To help quantify and identify traffic flow patterns and trends related to vehicles coming to and from The Woodlands, a new study was completed this spring by Brown & Gay Engineers for Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack’s office. The study, which used Bluetooth data, included several proposed solutions, namely improving connections along the major roadways surrounding the master-planned community to create a faster way for drivers to get to The Woodlands by avoiding major thoroughfares, like Woodlands Parkway.

Although counties can make roadway improvements in The Woodlands, because it is an unincorporated area in Harris and Montgomery counties, The Woodlands Township does not have authority over its roadways or a seat at the table with the Houston-Galveston Area Council, the region’s transportation planning agency, township board Chairman Gordy Bunch said.

“Essentially, we have no rights to our infrastructure and roadways,” he said.

Existing mobility problems

Nearly every major thoroughfare in The Woodlands—including Woodlands Parkway, Sawdust Road, I-45 and FM 2978—is considered over or at capacity, according to the South Montgomery County Mobility Study, a planning tool created by H-GAC in 2016.

One factor exacerbating the problem in The Woodlands is cut-through traffic, a majority of which is a result of the heavily congested I-45 corridor, according to the origin-destination study. Woodlands Parkway, Lake Woodlands Drive and Research Forest Drive carry approximately 12 percent, 2 percent and 13 percent of the cut-through traffic in the studied areas, respectively, according to the data.

Forty percent of the traffic coming from an area west of The Woodlands, specifically from Hardin Store Road west of FM 2978, uses Woodlands Parkway or Research Forest Drive to get to the community, according to the study.

From the south, approximately 50 percent of drivers on Gosling Road north of the Grand Parkway in Spring are traveling to The Woodlands, and 36 percent of drivers on Kuykendahl Road north of the Grand Parkway are coming to the master-planned community.

Ted Stanley, College Park Village Association president, said he believes the traffic congestion on I-45 has become a big problem in the last three to five years due mostly to growth in the surrounding area.

“The growth in the number of residents in The Woodlands has more than doubled in the last 15 years,” he said. “That will naturally cause traffic congestion. It doesn’t stand to reason that if motorists were trying to avoid the congestion on I-45, they’d take to the already congested internal roads [in The Woodlands].”

In response to projected future growth, Montgomery County has proposed several road extension projects over the past two years—including Woodlands Parkway, Gosling Road and Bear Branch Lane—either through a bond referendum or the South County Mobility Study. But they have been opposed by either voters in The Woodlands or the township board of directors in terms of resolutions.

More than 80 percent of Woodlands residents who voted in the May 2015 bond election, which included the Woodlands Parkway extension, voted against it.

However, it is clear residents still want improved mobility. In The Woodlands’ resident survey released in March, residents said better mobility and traffic flow was the main improvement needed in the community.

“Rather than routing additional traffic through already overburdened roads in The Woodlands, the capacity of other roadways, such as FM 1488, should be increased,” township Director John McMullan said.

In addition, residents said the top three initiatives related to improving transportation issues involve improving or creating more public transportation, widening or building more roads or overpasses, and improving traffic signal timing.

“If we don’t protect The Woodlands from additional thoroughfare construction, we are only going to exasperate the issue,” Bunch said. “We need to prioritize where we have the most significant issues within south county, and that apparently is leveraging the existing undersized infrastructure that exists before we go out and create new extensions.”

Mobility solutions

Instead of proposing new roadway extensions, the study suggests improving existing roadways to create the semblance of a loop around The Woodlands, using FM 1488, FM 2978, the Grand Parkway and I-45.

“Right now, because FM 1488 is congested, because FM 2978 is congested and Hwy. 242 is backed up, there is no great alternative route, so I think people chose a route of convenience for that given day,” Bunch said. “If you could open up the pipe and alleviate congestion, all of a sudden it becomes pretty clear your fastest route to the other side is FM 1488 or [the Grand Parkway], not Research Forest Drive or Woodlands Parkway.”

Other recommended projects in the study include widening Sawdust Road to eight lanes, collaborating with the Texas Department of Transportation to alleviate congestion on I-45 and interchanges in The Woodlands, and connecting Budde and Richard roads under I-45 to alleviate the I-45 and Sawdust intersection. Noack declined to comment on the study.

Potential money to fund the proposed concept of a loop around The Woodlands could involve the successful $280 million county road bond passed in November 2015, or a pass-through toll fund available to the county from TxDOT, Bunch said.

Another entity with road authority in the community is The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1, which was created to build major thoroughfares and collector streets. Representatives from the district also declined to comment for the story.

During the April 25 Commissioners Court meeting, commissioners decided to return in May with road project ideas that could be used with pass-through funds, which are a tool created by the state to allow local communities to fund upfront costs for constructing a state highway project. The state then reimburses a portion of the project cost to the community over time by paying a fee for each vehicle that drives on the new highway, according to TxDOT.

Although it is not a short-term solution, one way The Woodlands could gain control of its roadways is through incorporation. However, the downside is the yet-to-be-determined cost of becoming a city, McMullan said.

“I hope the township board commissions a study in 2017 to detail and analyze the expected quantitative costs and benefits that would result from incorporating,” he said. “Any such study should include the impact on transportation [and] mobility issues.”

Bunch said township officials will be working over the next couple of years to figure out what the true cost of becoming a city is and if that cost is worth the community being self-governed and having the ability to stop construction of proposed thoroughfares and road extensions.

Voters in The Woodlands will decide whether to incorporate should the board of directors choose to place the issue on a future ballot.

“Those are decisions every resident will have to make,” Bunch said.