What you need to know
Director of Intergovernmental Relations Todd Stephens presented to the board a timeline of the project being discussed by the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The project was first proposed in H-GAC’s 2035 Regional Transportation Plan in 2007.
In 2015, Montgomery County Precinct 3 officials conducted a South Montgomery County mobility study, where the project was also identified as a future need. The 2045 Regional Transportation Plan, adopted in April 2023, continued the project recommendation with an estimated fiscal year of 2025, according to the agenda.
“I think some particular visibility of this project is that the letting date represented in the regional transportation plan originally was 2023 then moved to 2025 and now it's proposed to be moved out to 2027. So when people saw that date, obviously that caused some concern about what the development of this project looks like,” Stephens said.
Board member Cindy Heiser questioned the need for updated traffic analysis on the roadway, as the last one was performed in 2015.
The board voted 6-1 to not take action with a resolution opposing the expansion or a request for removal from H-GAC’s list of planned transportation projects, with board member Shelley Sekula-Gibbs casting the lone opposed vote.
Board members suggested an updated traffic study be done, but no action was taken regarding a possible study.
How we got here
The H-GAC released the 2025-28 Transportation Improvement Plan on April 3 including the widening of Grogans Mill Road from four lanes to six lanes, as previously reported by Community Impact.
The township board was not made aware of the project until the township was granted a seat on the H-GAC board earlier this year. At the Aug. 28 meeting, the board discussed the future of transportation projects where some board members expressed concerns.
“So right now, there's no money. There's a cost associated with the potential project, but there is no funding currently that is obligated or tied to this project directly,” Stephens said at the Oct. 21 meeting.
What they’re saying
“We have no data. We have no data on this. We have a commissioner that's on his way out, and we got another commissioner that's on his way in, and guess what they do—roads. So we need to start working with our new commissioner about what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. But we have no data,” board member Brad Bailey said.
“If you do believe you want this, then vote for it. But if you don't want it—if you think this was done repeatedly in silence, without discussion and no voting—then I say, vote against it. ... Take it off the regional transportation plan,” Sekula-Gibbs said.
