Since the completion of Segment G of the Grand Parkway in April, subdivisions near the Rayford Road intersection have experienced a surge in growth.

Constance Willis, community sales representative for Woodson’s Reserve, said residents of the new master-planned community have easy access to the Grand Parkway, resulting in lighter traffic on Rayford Road.

“With the Grand Parkway opening, there has been a noticeable difference in the congestion,” Willis said. “Rayford and Sawdust [roads are] not nearly as bad as it was. Getting in and out, you don’t have to deal with all the construction.”

Woodson’s Reserve is in its early phases of construction, Willis said. As of May 23, a total of 37 homes were occupied. However, the subdivision will have about 1,000 single-family homes at build-out.

“There has been a huge spike with the amount of traffic that has come in,” Willis said. “Our front entrance was closed for about four months, so now that we actually have exposure and people can find us, it’s been huge.”

A number of new commercial projects are under construction as well at the corner of Rayford Road and the Grand Parkway. Retail projects typically come after residential construction, and a number of new and expanding neighborhoods have already begun putting new houses on the market, said David Gornet, executive director of the Grand Parkway Association.

“A lot of bigger names in retail are looking for a certain number of rooftops before they open,” he said. “There’s also a lot more work from a developer standpoint that needs to get done to move a retail project forward.”

As more housing is built along the Grand Parkway, the need for noise-blocking walls has increased, Gornet said.

“We’re continuing to look at issues with noise walls,” he said. “Some of the communities that were there before construction started have been talking with [the Texas Department of Transportation about installing] noise walls.”

TxDOT will provide homes built prior to construction of any Grand Parkway segment with noise-blocking walls. However, TxDOT is not responsible for building walls for developments built after construction is completed.

“TxDOT wants to work with [new developments] because they don’t want anyone to be adversely impacted by this,” Gornet said. “We want it to be a positive experience to [promote] better mobility.”

As a result of the heavy rainfall in April, portions of Segment G experienced flooding, Gornet said.

“We continue to try to improve,” Gornet said. “We have identified some challenges out there for what got built when [contractor Zachry Odebrecht Parkway Builders] was doing their construction. We had record rainfall and some issues along those pieces of the Grand Parkway that—while our design may be completely fine—when you have a record rainfall, you still have some flooding issues.”

Segments H and I-1 are the next portions of the Grand Parkway scheduled to be built, Gornet said. The 37-mile stretch of toll road, connecting Hwy. 59 to I-10 on the east side of Houston, is slated to be open to traffic in 2021 and will cost approximately $900 million to complete.

Additional reporting by Wendy Cawthon.