Intersection improvements are slated for several sections of North Eldridge Parkway in the Cy-Fair area.

The improvements—which will take place between Clay and Spring Cypress roads—are possible thanks to federal grant funding administered through the Houston-Galveston Area Council, said Pamela Rocchi, director of Harris County Precinct 4’s Capital Improvement Projects Division.

“[Precinct 4] Commissioner [Jack] Cagle was very interested in leveraging our existing funds to pursue traffic signal and intersection improvements, including corridor improvements that would relieve congestion along our major thoroughfares,” she said.

The improvements were identified as priorities by H-GAC, which announced a call for projects in November 2014 with $160 million in federal funds at its disposal through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program.

Phase 1 of the project, which is scheduled to run from 2017-18, entails traffic signal installation at seven intersections along North Eldridge Parkway.

Phase 2, which will take place during 2018-19, will involve intersection capacity improvements at two intersections. A northbound left-turn lane will be installed at Crossbridge Drive, and existing northbound and southbound turn lanes will be extended at FM 1960.

The total construction costs for the phases in their entirety are $17 million for Phase 1 and $9 million for Phase 2, Rocchi said. Precinct 4 is funding roughly 20 percent of the construction cost, or $3.4 million for Phase 1 and $1.6 million for Phase 2.

Precinct 4 is also funding the design effort, which is estimated to cost around $4 million for both phases combined, Rocchi said.

H-GAC received approximately 200 funding applications from its call for projects, H-GAC transportation analyst David Wurdlow said.

“We look at a number of different types of projects and how they align with the region’s priorities in our long-range plan,” he said. “This includes congestion and mobility issues as well as environmental factors and quality of life. These projects are pretty operational in nature. Making intersections that exist work better is relatively low-cost for the type of benefit we see.”