A list of 16 major road projects in Montgomery County was approved by Commissioners Court on Aug. 1 in a call for projects by the Houston-Galveston Area Council to be set up over the next 10 years.

What you need to know

The H-GAC provided a list of 16 major road projects to be fully funded by the Texas Department of Transportation as they are developed over the next 10 years. After approving the list, the H-GAC will submit the project to TxDOT for funding and letting with a goal of having all 16 projects underway within 10 years.

The details

A number of the projects in the six- to 10-year time frame are tied to major funding amounts.

• I-45 reconstruction and widening (Hwy. 242 to Loop 336): $200 million
• FM 1314 lane expansion: $110.6 million
• FM 830 lane expansion: $73.7 million
• I-45 reconstruction and widening (Hwy. 242 to Grand Parkway): $70 million
• FM 1488 widening (FM 2978 to I-45 North): $67.8 million

The short term projects come with a much lower price tag with the exception of one, the FM 1488 expansion to Hwy. 249.

• FM 1488 four-lane expansion to Hwy. 249: $70.6 million

What they’re saying

“We've been fighting for something like this now at H-GAC moving forward,” Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough said. “These will be matched by the state of Texas. Now if we want to move it up, we can move up the engineering, and we can spend the money to do what we want to do to move these up and get them quicker.”

Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said the county should push to get some of the projects moved up.

“The [FM] 1488 project needs to happen sooner rather than later,” he said at the meeting. “They can get restriping done, ... but it's a road [Precinct 2 Commissioner Charlie] Riley and I share, and I know we have great interest in getting that done as soon as possible.”