The $34 million Hwy. 242 direct connectors opened to traffic May 11. Tolls for the flyovers will begin being collected July 6.[/caption]
Two years after construction began, two direct connectors at Hwy. 242 and I-45 are open to traffic. The roadways opened May 11 and, to this point, have been free for drivers to use. Beginning in early July, tolls that were planned for the overpasses will begin to be assessed.
“Tolling operations will start collecting tolls on July 6,” said Jennie Taraborelli, transportation manager for PTP Transportation.
Drivers will pay 50 cents to travel each of the direct connectors, one from northbound I-45 to westbound Hwy. 242, and the other westbound Hwy. 242 to southbound I-45.
The Montgomery County Toll Road Authority, which is composed of the four county commissioners, established the toll rates at its June 1 meeting. Although the MCTRA set the fees and will collect the funds generated from the direct connectors, the Harris County Toll Road Authority is managing the toll equipment, County Judge Craig Doyal said.
The flyovers will be accessible only to drivers with toll tags, rather than being operated by cash- or coin-operated booths. Drivers with EZTag, TxTag or TollTag will have access to the flyovers, according to PTP Transportation.
PTP Transportation is working to better synchronize traffic signals along Hwy. 242, particularly those near Lone Star College-Montgomery, to better improve the flow of traffic, Taraborelli said.
“We want the public to use them for a couple of months for free while we tinker with the stoplights,” she said. “But we’re seeing an improvement in the synchronization in lights on [Hwy.] 242. The lights weren’t synched quite as well.”
PTP Transportation conducted traffic counts in a 24-hour timeframe on both direct connectors May 26. The northbound connector had 5,302 drivers during that period, while the westbound to southbound connector had 9,166 vehicles travel on it, according to PTP.
However those numbers were likely lower than expected, Taraborelli said, because heavy rains affected drivers and roadways in Montgomery and Harris counties the week the counts were collected.
Still, Taraborelli said the traffic numbers were what PTP expected to see.
“We always hoped that the westbound to southbound [connector] would be heavily used because [drivers] are going at a current speed and take the connector and merge onto I-45 at current speed, so it is particularly a time-saver,” she said.
The early traffic counts revealed the direct connectors were handling about 50 percent of their total capacity, Taraborelli said. She said she expected traffic, at least on the westbound connector, to increase once classes resume at LSC-Montgomery.
“Every day the usage is picking up,” she said. “We’re noticing every day more and more people use it.”
The $34 million Hwy. 242 direct connect project was part of a $125 million bond project approved by county voters in 2005. The flyovers were part of a “pass-through” funding mechanism in which Montgomery County funded the construction projects through bonds, but would later be reimbursed by the state for some of the projects.
Money generated from the tolls will be used to pay the county’s debt service, operation and maintenance on the connectors. Once that debt service is paid, the toll funds could be used to pay for other mobility projects, Doyal said.
