Following approval from Harris County voters in November, road bond projects to improve mobility in the Tomball area are moving forward.

Nearly $87 million worth of new road projects are underway in and around Tomball, including expansions to Hufsmith-Kohrville and Telge roads as well as other improvements. Although voters approved the $700 million road bond for improvement projects throughout the county, funds from the bond have not yet been received, Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle said.

Until bond funds become available, Cagle said the precinct has begun work on the projects by tapping other mobility funds the precinct can draw from to pay for road improvements. The precinct will then reallocate resources next year when it receives a portion of the road bond funding.

“We may have a project that’s being paid for by nonbond funds, but we can move forward on it because the bond funds allow us to pay for another project,” Cagle said.

Tomball-area projects

Road bond projects in the Tomball area, which lies in Precinct 4, include widening Hufsmith-Kohrville Road, improving the intersection of Hufsmith-Kohrville and Holderrieth roads, and building Fagan Lane—named for Tomball Mayor Gretchen Fagan—which will connect Cedar Lane and Telge Road near the Grand Parkway.

County officials are working with the Tomball Economic Development Corporation to add a traffic signal system and left-turn lanes at the intersection of Hufsmith-Kohrville and Holderrieth roads.

TEDC Executive Director Kelly Violette said the improvements were deemed necessary based on a traffic impact analysis that was performed by the TEDC when it purchased the property for the construction of the Tomball Business and Technology Park in 2011.

“Despite any improvements [or] any building that we did on that property, the traffic counts that were recorded at that time on Hufsmith-Kohrville [Road] warranted a signal and turning lanes,” she said. “We know that our development is going to impact that even more.”

Violette said the intersection improvements will be made in anticipation of more significant projects, such as the widening of Hufsmith-Kohrville Road, as TEDC began designing the improvements before the bond was approved. TEDC paid for the design costs while Precinct 4 will fund the construction.

“We will be moving forward on this interim improvement to get the light turning movements there with the idea of trying to be very responsible with the funds we’re putting into it because we know the bigger improvements of the entire corridor getting expanded will [begin] in a fairly short period of time,” Violette said.

She said the design phase for the project is nearly finished, and construction is expected to begin in fall 2016.

According to county officials, the stretch of Hufsmith-Kohrville Road from just south of Spring Cypress Road to FM 2920 will be widened from two to four lanes and upgraded from asphalt to concrete pavement. Workers completed Segment 1 of the five-segment project at the end of June, widening the road from south of Spring Cypress Road to Hollow Glen Lane. Segment 6 from Willow Creek Estates Lane to FM 2920 is in the design phase, and the remaining three segments are in the study phase.

“The Hufsmith-Kohrville project will allow those trucks and those businesses that are in that [industrial park] region to have good, solid [and] safe access through that region,” Cagle said.

Fagan Lane was awarded to Lexton Construction on March 29, and construction began in late June with a 60-day construction contract, Rocchi said.

Just outside the Tomball city limits, four segments of Telge Road—from Spring Cypress Road to FM 2920—will also be widened from two to four lanes. As of June 29, the project is still in the study phase, said Pamela Rocchi, director of the Precinct 4 Capital Improvement Projects Division. County officials have not said when the study phase will be completed or when construction will begin.

“We have so many neighborhoods that have sprung up [on Telge Road],” Cagle said. “We’ll be able to make it faster, safer and [a] more pleasant mobility experience for the constituents in that area.”

Bond dollars

According to Frank Bruce, Harris County senior director of finance and budget, Precinct 4 will receive 27 percent of the bond, or $189 million, rather than the $210 million estimated last fall, due to a change in the funding formula approved by Harris County Commissioners Court on June 28. In addition, he said Precinct 4 will receive a share of the 12 percent allotted to the county Engineering Department for selected projects.

However, Harris County Budget Officer Bill Jackson said the county will not issue the 2015 bonds until previous bonds are paid off. This strategy will ensure that neither the county’s debt nor its tax rate will increase.

“We’re trying to hold down our debts and issue bonds that are authorized by the taxpayers as we pay off other bonds, which is very unique,” Jackson said.

Funding for roads in the county also comes from other sources, such as the Harris County Toll Road Authority and general tax revenue, Jackson said.

“Commissioners had [mobility money] that we wanted to see utilized first before we went out and started spending and issuing debt,” he said. “That’s why we haven’t issued any of that road money yet.”

On average, the county receives $120 million in toll road revenue, according to HCTRA Assistant Communications Director Patty Evans.

Bruce said funds received from HCTRA must be spent on roads. But the general tax revenue allocated to each commissioner can be used for a variety of projects within the precinct, he said.

“There is just not a set amount that each commissioner spends on roads each year out of their general fund allocation,” Bruce said. “It varies by commissioner, and [it] is totally up to each commissioner to prioritize their own expenditures.”

The $700 million bond will be issued over a seven-year period, but the bond dollars are not directly assigned to fund specific projects, Cagle said.

“By [issuing bonds] out over seven years, they allow us to have a curve toward improvement over time, [instead of a spike],” he said.

Additionally, Cagle said it is not necessary for a project to be fully funded before moving forward with the study and design phases. The commissioner said 65 percent of a project’s cost comes in the final stage: the construction phase.

Preparing for growth

As the county population grows, road improvements are needed to accommodate an increased number of cars on its roads. Tomball City Manager George Shackelford said although the city itself is small, a high volume of traffic regularly travels through Tomball.

“It’s a town of 11,000 [residents] surrounded by 2 million [people],” he said.

In 2010, 64,300 people resided within a 5-mile radius of Tomball city limits, according to demographics from the TEDC. The population grew to more than 76,000 residents by 2015 and is expected to grow about 3 percent each year until 2020.

Violette said improvements made possible by the road bond are necessary not only to improve mobility around Tomball but also to encourage economic growth.

“The more thoroughfares and improvements that we can have, obviously the better mobility [we can have] in the area, which always helps economic development,” Violette said. “If you can’t get goods and services and people around, then you’re out of the game.”

Cagle said he expects the population of Precinct 4 to double in the next 15 years. Moving ahead with projects in anticipation of bond funds allows the precinct to keep up with the expected growth in the Tomball area, he said.

“[The population in] Precinct 4 is exploding,” Cagle said. “The epicenter of a lot of that growth is right here in [the Tomball area]. So we’re trying to make sure we do everything we can to work with the city of Tomball [and the Texas Department of Transportation] to make sure we are not just on top of—but hopefully every now and then—ahead of that growth, that development that we’re anticipating.”