The Harris County Toll Road Authority is revisiting plans to extend the north section of Fort Bend Parkway to connect to the southwest corner of the I-610 Loop.
“The engineer is collecting current traffic data to reassess the original 2003 schematic development to determine benefits and impacts to the area,” said Roxy Sibrian, a member of the HCTRA communications team. “The development process of the schematic is expected to be complete early 2020.”
According to an HCTRA financial statement, the county purchased land for the project in 2005 for $3.86 million. In February 2018, Harris County Commissioners Court approved $870,000 for a contract with Brown & Gay Engineers Inc., to evaluate plans for the extension.
When it was completed in 2004, the Fort Bend Parkway Toll Road connected Sienna Parkway in Missouri City to Hwy. 90 as a joint effort between the HCTRA and the Fort Bend County Toll Road Authority. About 13,800 cars use the toll road each day, according to Texas Department of Transportation traffic data.
The HCTRA plans to hold public input meetings to obtain community feedback in the future, Sibrian said.
A proposed route for the extension would bring the tollway through the Willow Waterhole detention site, drawing concerns from the Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy.
"The WWGC is very concerned about the impact of the toll road on the Greenway's amenities and activities. We look forward to meeting to discuss this further," Howard Sacks, past-president of the conservancy wrote in a letter to the toll road authority shared with
Community Impact Newspaper.