During a standing-room-only townhall meeting in Shenandoah Sept. 5, residents asked questions and gave feedback to city officials on the ongoing fiber internet project and the citywide thoroughfare plan. City thoroughfare plan Public Works Director Joseph Peart presented the following proposed changes to the citywide thoroughfare plan: • Adding the Montgomery County thoroughfare plan to the Shenandoah thoroughfare plan. • Adding the MetroPark Square roads that are under construction. • Changing David J. Vetter Blvd. from a collector to a local road. • Changing Six Pines and Pinecroft drives from collectors to local roads. • Revising a segment of Grogan’s Mill Road from a major arterial to a minor arterial. • Revising the alignment for a future Lark Lane at Vision Park Blvd. • Removing the north-south corridor connection to Wellman Road. Peart also discussed the David Memorial Drive extension to Hwy. 242 and the proposed underpass at Grogan’s Mill Road and Research Forest Drive. Phase 1 of the David Memorial Drive extension project was completed in May 2017. However, as the remaining one-mile stretch of road runs through three jurisdictions—Shenandoah, Montgomery County Precinct 4 and Conroe—as well as wetlands—which requires federal permitting—Peart said Phase 2 of the project has been delayed. “There are a lot of hurdles but staff has been meeting with all of the entities involved to try to get this project continued—moving forward—because everyone we speak to says ‘oh yes, this will be a huge impact on traffic,’” Peart said. “But that being said, there is an approximate $9 million cost and it’s probably a five- to 10-year project before it even begins, and most of that has to do with the wetlands [barrier].” Upon completion, the project will allow David Memorial Drive to serve as an alternate north-south corridor to I-45. The proposed Research Forest underpass would allow Research Forest Drive to run underneath Grogans Mill Road and would be funded by Montgomery County Precinct 3. The intersection is the No. 1 intersection in The Woodlands for most traffic accidents and ranks No. 2 countywide, according to with South Montgomery County Mobility Study. According to Mayor Ritch Wheeler, although an underpass is not an ideal solution, it is preferable to the county’s previously discussed overpass. “An overpass… would provide for an awful lot of noise pollution, it would be very unsightly and it would make that intersection very difficult to pass through for pedestrians or bicyclists… so an overpass there would be bad,” Wheeler said. “But [with] an underpass, we don’t get that noise pollution, we don’t get near the visual clutter, because there are at-grade lanes still, and it’s much safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. It will [also] be better for our businesses because it will be pushed further back outside of our city limits—the overpass would have had to land at Six Pines [Drive] cutting off some of our businesses.” Wheeler said if built, the underpass would cost approximately $14 million, compared to $8.5 million for an overpass and would be funded by Montgomery County Precinct 3 and The Woodlands Road Utility District No. 1, as the intersection is just outside of Shenandoah's city limits. The project was submitted for the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s 2018 call for Transportation Improvement Program, and could potentially be awarded funding between 2019-2029. “It’s not a perfect solution—a perfect solution would have been a “T” intersection if you could get them to build a “T” intersection which still grades a “D” for $8 million—they’re not going to do it,” Wheeler said. “But it’s not [Shenandoah’s] money and it’s not [Shenandoah’s] intersection.” Fiber Internet Project Tachus LLC President Hal Brumfield also gave a presentation on the ongoing citywide fiber internet project. Tachus began installing fiber conduit to nearly 1,000 single-family homes in city facilities in Shenandoah in early May. “We haven’t finished installations in homes and we haven’t finished clean up in Shenandoah Parts 1, 2 and 3, however, we’re way ahead of schedule on Shenandoah Valley,” Brumfield said. “We started Dulcimer Woods and Avalon Oaks—those are 80 and 90 percent complete, and we’re getting to Tuscany Woods and Parkgate [Reserve] within the next week. So the original plan was that we were going to be finished in November of next year—it looks like we’re going to be finished by the end of this year. So we’re way ahead of schedule.” The service will provide speeds up to 1 gigabit per second with a minimum of 500 megabits per second for a monthly rate of $90.25 per household for Shenandoah residents. The project will be extended to Shenandoah neighborhoods including Shenandoah Valley, Tuscany Woods. Malaga Forest, Lily, Parkgate Reserve, Dulcimer Woods