The city of Tomball approved a bid to construct Segment 3 of Medical Complex Drive on March 3 at a City Council meeting.

Council awarded the bid to Hassell Construction Company Inc. in the amount of $5,879,967. Segment 3 of Medical Complex Drive will connect the street from where it dead-ends in the hospital area near Lawrence Street through to Cherry Street.

"The bid was a little over what we budgeted for, but it went over because of the time it took to get it to bid," Tomball City Manager George Shackelford said.

The city had funding for this portion of the project already secured, in part from the Tomball Economic Development Corporation and funding in the city budget, but was waiting on right-of-way acquisition before sending the project to bid. Shackelford said acquisition of right of way on the west side of Cherry Street took about a year to finalize and that delay caused the bid to come in over budget. He also said the rising cost of concrete and the fact the city only had four companies bid on the project were also factors in the project being more than the projected budget.

"We only had four companies bid on the project, and we really need about eight or nine bids to get the best price," he said. "Many of the construction companies are really busy with all the projects going on in the region."

There is still one more parcel of land the city needs to acquire through right of way on the east side of Cherry Street, but it will not hold up the start of construction on the project, he said.

Segment 3 of Medical Complex Drive will have two lanes in each direction with a median in the middle and some landscaping, Shackelford said. The length of Segment 3 is just shy of a mile, with the project measuring 0.9 miles. Sidewalks will be constructed on both sides of the road for the entire length of the Medical Drive extension. Construction will begin once contracts have been finalized and, once started, Segment 3 will take less than a year to complete, Shackelford said.

The Medical Complex Drive extension, which will cost a total of about $50 million, is broken up into five segments. The city is first focusing on Segment 3 of the project, as it is the only segment that has been funded by the city. The other segments will be funded as money becomes available for the city to construct them, Shackelford said.

The Medical Complex Drive extension, as depicted on the city of Tomball's major thoroughfare plan, allows for east-west traffic confined to FM 2920 to filter to the south. The goal of this project is to divert traffic to the southern half of the city, Shackelford said.

"It's going to be an east/west corridor that will provide gained access to the hospital and other medical facilities," Shackelford said. "It's going to serve as another major east/west thoroughfare in addition to FM 2920, which should allow for easier mobility around the city."