Missouri City council gives green light to Lake Olympia Parkway/Fort Bend Tollway traffic signal project

With a $70,869 price tag, the Missouri City City Council has given the green light on the design of a new traffic signal at the intersection of Lake Olympia Parkway and Fort Bend Toll Road.

Through a unanimous vote of its consent agenda during its March 21 meeting, council approved the design that will be worked on by civil engineering firm Gradient Group LLC, according to March 21 agenda documents.

The firm will perform several tasks, including a field visit of the site, making traffic projections, creating a topographic survey and creating schematic designs and creating a design for the traffic signal.

The selection comes due to a projected increase in traffic volumes in that area, according to a traffic impact analysis performed by the development engineer of the Parks Edge subdivision. The intersection is controlled through four-way stop signs.

Feeding that future traffic volume is not only the new construction of the 2.8-million-square-foot Amazon HOU8 warehouse to the east but also the development of the Dry Creek subdivision and Fort Bend Business Park, according to agenda documents.

Gradient Group was selected through a request for qualifications process that began in December 2021 and saw seven responses from interested firms by the Jan. 19 due date. Gradient Group was ranked ahead of the other six candidates by the city’s staff selection committee.

Construction on the intersection project isn’t slated to begin until fall 2022, however.

Missouri City has allocated $500,000 out of its capital improvement program toward the project, according to agenda documents. Also expected is a share of funding from Missouri City Management District No. 2.