The revision will include a new regional mobility study and result in an amended thoroughfare plan for all four county precincts, according to an overview of the update included in the court’s agenda. Commissioners unanimously approved the plan proposal, which was submitted by Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack and developed by Brown & Gay Engineers, without discussion.
Precincts 1 and 3 will each contribute $50,000 for the plan update, while Precinct 2 will pay $15,000, and Precinct 4 will pay $10,000. Precincts 2 and 4 are each developing their own mobility studies, the results of which will be included in the new countywide plan.
The 2016 Montgomery County Thoroughfare Plan was compiled under planners with the Houston-Galveston Area Council and a steering committee of officials from the county and other local entities. The plan included a long-range outline of the county’s roadways and guidelines for future thoroughfare development. That document followed previous county thoroughfare plans released in 1979, 1985, 1998 and 2012, and was designed to be updated on a five-year basis, according to that plan’s overview.
The county’s amended 2020 plan will compile a variety of transportation, demographic, economic and land use information collected by BGE from local and regional entities. The update will be overseen by Commissioners Court, and commissioners may also form additional groups of stakeholders to provide further input from their precincts. Precincts 1 and 3 will hold public meetings as part of the plan update, while precincts 2 and 4 will hold related transportation meetings through their ongoing mobility studies.
According to BGE, the plan update will include an analysis of the county’s major roadways, east-west and north-south connectivity, and accessibility on highways such as the Grand Parkway, Hwy. 249, I-45 and I-69. The revised plan will result in short-, intermediate- and long-range county mobility improvement concepts and their cost effectiveness, some of which may be submitted for funding through H-GAC programs.
“This process shall conclude with an Amended Montgomery County Thoroughfare Plan, which will provide a long-term vision of the arterial roadway network necessary to meet future travel needs for the region,” the project overview stated.
Commissioners previously considered the future of countywide transportation in February when BGE shared a presentation about a potential new mobility bond and related projects, although the county has not revisited the topic of a new bond since then. Montgomery County’s last road bond was approved by voters in 2015 and included $280 million in funding for road projects across the four county precincts.
A timeline for the thoroughfare plan update was not included in the project overview.
