Two separate mobility projects will result in the widening of FM 2978 and Honea Egypt Road over the next year. The FM 2978 project will be taken on by the Texas Department of Transportation, while Montgomery County has partnered with the Westwood Improvement District to take on Honea Egypt Road.
The Montgomery County project involves widening the portion of Honea Egypt Road from FM 1488 north to Sendera Ranch Drive. The two-lane road will be widened to five lanes.
The Honea Egypt project will soon leave the design phase, according to Craig Doyal, county commissioner in Montgomery County Precinct 2. He said he hopes to see construction start this summer.
The projects are intended to deal with traffic build-up, which has been getting worse over time, Doyal said.
"When a car tries to turn left around Sendera Ranch during peak traffic hours, everything backs up and there's gridlock," he said. "Just by going from two lanes to five, we can have a tremendous impact with very little construction."
A TxDOT project will widen the portion of FM 2978 from Conroe-Huffsmith Road to Dry Creek Road from two lanes to four with a five foot shoulder.
The project left the design phase in March. A contract for construction on the 2.5-mile stretch of road is expected to be awarded in August with construction lasting approximately 20 months, according to Deidrea Samuels, public information officer with TxDOT.
Montgomery County is working with TxDOT to help with some of the preliminary work on the widening near Conroe-Huffsmith Road, Doyal said.
"We're trying to do everything we can to move that project forward," he said.