TxDOT to rehabilitate Hempstead Road as alternate route

One of the first steps involving a proposed $1.3 billion project to install managed lanes on Hwy. 290 from Loop 610 to the Grand Parkway is complete.

An initial agreement for the project was approved in late April between Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation. The two entities approved the memorandum of understanding to work together on three Houston-area highways, including Hwy. 290 and the Grand Parkway, the latter of which will be a toll road.

"Improved transportation will fit hand and glove with the growth we are experiencing," said Jack Cagle, Precinct 4 commissioner. "If we were not able to secure the memorandum of understanding with TxDOT for the expansion of 290 and the Grand Parkway, the congestion that we are experiencing in the region would have hindered our growth."

The project

The proposed project calls for building a two or three-lane reversible managed lane facility for high occupancy vehicles and toll traffic, and includes the addition of one general lane in both directions.

"Houston's introduction to managed lanes began in April 2009 when the Katy Managed Lanes opened," said Eric Hanson, media relations coordinator for the Harris County Toll Road Authority. "Managed lanes combine two types of roadways—high occupancy vehicle lanes and toll roads—to more flexibly meet the needs of a wide range of commuters, from mass transit and HOV riders to single occupancy vehicles."

Several projects have been proposed in the past several years to address the traffic congestion on Hwy. 290 and to construct a corridor capable of handling the 250,000 cars that travel the freeway daily, said Karen Othon, TxDOT's Hwy. 290 public information officer.

"It has always been TxDOT's plan to rebuild 290 from [Loop] 610 to FM 2920," she said. "This is a monumental step toward us making progress and advancing the vision of the 290 Program."

A portion of the other improvements planned for Hwy. 290 are in progress or will begin this summer, but before the proposed managed lanes project, there was no funding for any construction west of Beltway 8. The two remaining segments from the Grand Parkway to FM 2920 remain unfunded, Othon said.

"With state and federal funding for transportation becoming more limited, local communities have had to find ways to stretch their dollars," Hanson said.

As part of the agreement, Harris County waived its rights to construct the Hempstead Toll Road, which would have run parallel to Hwy. 290, a similar concept to that of the Hardy Toll Road near I-45. Instead, TxDOT will rehabilitate Old Hempstead Road from east of Washington Avenue to west of Beltway 8 with an asphalt overlay, so the thoroughfare can serve as an alternate route during the managed lanes installation process.

No design work has been completed for the proposed managed lanes project, but it could look similar to the managed lanes on I-10, west of downtown.

Construction on the project could start early next year, but is expected to take about four years, Othon said.

Funding issues

The state, along with the Houston–Galveston Area Council, will provide $213 million in Proposition 12 bonds—monies set aside to address highway congestion— to construct the project, and about $433 million from the Unified Transportation Program. Harris County agreed to pay $400 million, but it will request a credit for its investment of approximately $80 million for advanced funding for Segment E of the Grand Parkway.

Since tax dollars are used primarily for neighborhood roads, the county is moving toward a user-pay model for several projects in which it uses tolls to help finance major thoroughfares, Cagle said. A slightly different project in the area, the county is trying to move forward to develop Hwy. 249 as a toll road, as opposed to the managed lanes concept on Hwy. 290.

"Seven or eight years ago, people in Tomball were opposed to a toll road going into their area," Cagle said. "Then they built three feeder lanes. What we now see is the citizens are sitting there in three lanes of heavy traffic. They look to the left where a toll road could be and they say, 'I would rather pay that $1.30 so I can fly by instead of sitting and spending money on gas.'"