Just as Woodlands area drivers are seeing the end of more than a year's worth of lane closures, diversions and delays due to pipeline installation and intersection improvements, more road construction is on the way in the New Year. The Woodland Road Utility District No. 1 is planning more than $14 million worth of intersection improvements, primarily throughout Town Center. The projects are among the latest efforts to improve mobility in The Woodlands' downtown district that is experiencing increases in population and jobs as well as traffic congestion.

"There is a lot being done on the first half of next year," Woodlands Township Director Mike Bass said. "There is liable to be some emotional reaction to see more of this continue."

The WRUD projects consist of improvements at nine intersections throughout Town Center. The improvements range from extending turn lanes to allow for more cars to make turns, widening roadways to increase capacity and installing traffic signals.

Town Center focus

The goal behind the projects is to improve mobility throughout Town Center as well as access to and from business in the district, said Robert Heineman, vice president of planning for The Woodlands Development Comopany and spokesman for the WRUD.

The WRUD is funded by a 36-cent property tax on commercial and residential properties located primarily within Town Center.

"The RUD is funded entirely from commercial business, and most of those are in Town Center," he said. "The basic idea is that the RUD is more interested in helping mobility in their areas, and when you get county bond issues where residents vote and businesses don't, then you tend to concentrate projects on where residents live. This way, both are covered."

The Woodlands Township and Montgomery County Precinct 3 either have planned or could include transit and mobility projects in future funding efforts, including a probable county bond election in May.

"The RUD projects are supplemental to anything the county might do, or that we may do," Township Director Jeff Long said. "Anything [the RUD does] that will assist in mitigating traffic congestion I view as a positive for this community. Some of the areas they are looking at are among the most congested."

In 2013, The Woodlands Development Company conducted a traffic count study over a 24-hour period at most intersections throughout The Woodlands and along I-45. Included in the study were 39 intersections in Town Center. Of the 39 intersections studied, 34 saw increases in traffic over the previous year.

In addition to Town Center roadways experiencing more traffic, the area's population numbers are escalating. During a five-year period from 2008 to 2013, the resident population in Town Center increased 214 percent, from 862 in 2008 to 2,705 in 2013.

Improvements

One of the primary focuses of the construction efforts is Grogan's Mill Road at Lake Woodlands Drive. An overpass is planned for Lake Woodlands Drive over Grogan's Mill Road, a project that is in the early stages of design, according to the WRUD.

That intersection is one of the most heavily traveled in Town Center.

According to the township's April 2013 traffic study, more than 45,000 vehicle trips pass through the Grogan's Mill Road/Lake Woodlands Drive intersection per day.

Additional improvements at the intersection include extending all eight turn lanes and widening Grogan's Mill Road before the construction of the overpass begins, Heineman said.

Work on that intersection is planned to begin in March with an expected June completion date, according to the RUD. Other areas that will undergo construction in the first half of the year include Grogan's Mill Road beginning Feb. 25, Lake Woodlands Drive beginning March 2 and portions of Woodlands Parkway beginning Jan. 15 and Feb. 19.

Heineman said much of the RUD's projects would begin after the holidays to avoid increased traffic during the shopping season.

"You have to work around the holidays," he said. "You don't want to do things during Christmas."

Future efforts

The recent flood of construction projects in The Woodlands is a result of governmental agencies working to catch up with increasing populations, Long said.

"It's nearly always a catch-up game," Long said. "How do you do that effectively? The worst thing you can do is ignore it. Then it's to the point where you can't fix it."

Some of the intersection improvements planned, whether through the WRUD or another entity such as the township, could be complete in as few as 60 days, Long said.

"There will be some cases where it's going to take us a period over the next two to three years to make life better," he said. "But we're going to get to a point where we'll be done, build-out will be done. We will see over the next year or two most of the pain will exist, and hopefully you'll start to see it smooth out."

However, with so many improvements needed to help alleviate increasing traffic congestions, as evidenced by the recent South Montgomery County Mobility Study, funding these projects could be an issue, Heineman said.

The WRUD has expended nearly all of its money from its most recent bond referendum, and Heineman said its future funding potential has yet to be decided. The county has not passed a road bond since 2005.

"The RUD has been the only one spending money on [road construction] the past few years," he said. "From county bond issues or federal money, there has been nothing over the last nine years."

In addition, the future funding potential by the WRUD could be in question following the coming improvements.

"The [WRUD] would have to decide to vote for more bonds," he said. "That decision hasn't been made yet. But we need to know fairly soon."