David Gornet has been living and breathing the Grand Parkway for 30 years. He is the executive director for The Grand Parkway Association and has served in that capacity since 2001. Part of his role as executive director is to educate and inform the public about the benefits of the Grand Parkway. An engineer by trade, Gornet has done alignment studies for the Grand Parkway dating back to the 1980s. Before his work with the GPA, Gornet worked for 18 years for a consulting firm in Houston as director of transportation planning. In 1984, the Texas Department of Transportation authorized the creation of the Grand Parkway Association as a nonprofit state transportation corporation. Conceived by the city of Houston in 1962, The Grand Parkway will span more than 180 miles once it is completed.

The Grand Parkway was identified back in the 1960s. What are some of the reasons the project was delayed, and why is now the best time to undertake the project?

The process has been different for several of the segments. The challenge as we move forward with other segments has been they want to use federal funds or at least qualify for federal funds. As of today, we are still not using any direct federal funds for it. But to be eligible to use federal funds you have to go through a federal environmental process that takes a significant amount of time for a new location road.

The documentation process, all the public involvement, going through the federal reviews, adds up a lot of time to that and a lot of cost. That has been a challenge.

It also takes us 10 years to set an alignment. So, we could be working on a route and in the meantime a subdivision gets built in the middle of what was a nice, open piece of pasture, and we have to move somewhere else. Moving somewhere else has other impacts that we have to go through. But we have made it through all of that. We have got a route set. The growth has been coming such that the Grand Parkway is more of a reaction to the growth that has already occurred rather than a plan, a proactive plan that you are trying to accommodate future growth. The timing is there. Having the environmental approvals. Having the growth that's occurred. The demand for new facilities. Now is the time to get out there and do something.

The Grand Parkway will traverse seven counties when completed. Can you comment on the challenges of working on a project with various departments and officials?

Going through seven counties has been challenging, but we have been blessed to have almost universal support from elected officials. Each county has their own ideas about what would be most beneficial for their county. You have to get the various officials in each county to understand the challenges and that you are doing something in their county that might have impacts elsewhere as well. You have got to get them all to understand that. Sometimes one county has to give a little because there would be offsetting impacts in another county.

What are the most important things drivers should know in regards to construction and lane/street closures?

Zachry-Odebrecht's website

www.grandparkway99.com. Part of their contract with TxDOT required them to have public involvement office so that people knew about all of that. If you go there you can get signed up for alerts.

The website will have the most up to date information. Because the Grand Parkway is what would be called a green field project—it's not following an existing road predominately—the street closures should be very limited. So we hope there is going to be [a] limited need for closing cross streets and existing roads, but the public will be able to make themselves aware of what's going on by going to that website.

Is Grand Parkway Segment E on schedule to open by 2013? Are Segments F1, F2 and G on schedule to be completed in 2015?

Yes. They are quick turnarounds. They are very aggressive construction schedules. It's a green field project. They can go out on Segment E and clear miles of right of way, put their set up, dig their ditches, put the dirt embankment in there, set the forms for the pavers, and that paver can go and pour two lanes plus the shoulders all at one time and just go. And he can do a couple of miles.

The schedule is reflective of the conditions that they have. They do not have cars going 70 mph right next to the contractors working there. It's wide-open space, so they are able to do it quickly.

What kind of economic impact can residents near Grand Parkway's path anticipate in the years following the highway's completion?

Certainly Segment D has been a huge benefit for Fort Bend County and western Harris County. It has opened up that area. It's been very positive for that area. I would expect that areas from Katy to Cypress on over to Tomball to Spring in to Montgomery County are going to see very similar patterns of growth in those corridors.

What are the main ways in which the Grand Parkway Association facilitates the construction of the Grand Parkway?

The Grand Parkway Association's charge is only to do the environmental planning, set the partnership between the local governments, the property owners and the state, and to get a route set. We have not built any of the road. The GPA continues to do public involvement events even though our job is technically done now that we have environmental approval on those segments. There is still a job to go out and meet with folks and communicate what is going on.