David Gornet

The process has been different for several of the segments. The challenge as we move forward with other segments has been they want to use federal funds or at least qualify for federal funds. As of today, we are still not using any direct federal funds for it. But to be eligible to use federal funds you have to go through a federal environmental process that takes a significant amount of time for a new location road. The documentation process, all the public involvement, going through the federal reviews adds up a lot of time to that. And a lot of cost. That has been a challenge.

Can you comment on the challenges of working on a project with various departments and officials?

Going through seven counties has been challenging, but we have been blessed to have almost universal support from elected officials. Each county has their own ideas about what would be most beneficial for their county. You have to get the various officials in each county to understand the challenges and that if you are doing something in their county that it might have impacts elsewhere as well. You have got to get them all to understand that. And sometimes one county has to give a little because there would be offsetting impacts in another county.

What are the main ways in which the Grand Parkway Association facilitates the construction of the Grand Parkway?

The Grand Parkway Association's charge is only to do the environmental planning, set the partnership between the local governments, the property owners and the state, and to get a route set. We have not built any of the road. The GPA continues to do public involvement events even though our job is technically done now that we have environmental approval on those segments. There is still a job to go out and meet with folks and communicate what is going on.

As of now, we are staying in business. We still have three segments to finish up: Segment B and segments H and I1. We do not have environmental approval on those yet.

What are the most important things drivers should know in regards to construction and lane closures?

Zachry-Odebrecht's website grandparkway99.com. Part of their contract with TxDOT required them to have a public involvement office so that people knew about all of that. If you go there you can get signed up for alerts. Because the Grand Parkway is what would be called a green field project—it's not following an existing road predominately—the street closures should be very limited.

What kind of economic impact can residents near Grand Parkway's path anticipate?

I am sure that if I had a house that had been there for years and all of a sudden you are building a highway in my backyard, I would think that those specific homes are going to have probably an adverse impact to them. From either a noise, a visual perspective or just a perception that this house has gone down in value. I regret any area that we are doing that.

As an area though, certainly Segment D has been a huge benefit for Fort Bend County and western Harris County. It has opened up that area. It's been very positive for that area. I would expect that areas from Katy to Cypress on over to Tomball to Spring in to Montgomery County are going to see very similar patterns of growth in those corridors.

What impact, if any, has the ExxonMobil relocation and Grand Parkway's construction had on one another?

There is always those conspiracy theorists that think you are only building the road for this big corporation, and the big corporation is going to benefit. Well, the city had [Grand Parkway] on its plans back in the 1960s. We started the study for Segments E, F1, F2 and G back in 1999. We already had lines drawn on a map and had a publisher draft an environmental impact statement in 2004 and the revised draft in 2006. The final environmental impact statement was published in 2008 for that area. Exxon, I do not think, selected its office site until the 2009 time frame or so.

How will Grand Parkway make commuting easier for residents along the Rayford Road corridor?

It is going to give them another access. Today, if I am in Spring Trails or Benders Landing, I am pretty well stuck taking Riley Fuzzell Road down to the Hardy Toll Road, or taking Rayford Road over to I-45. The Grand Parkway is going to give them better access.

As the Grand Parkway opens up, we are going to see a redistribution of trips. People will change their current trip pattern and do things differently. I would expect that Rayford Road would probably have a little less traffic on it, unless there are people today that really wanted to go that way. You will have more capacity to move cars through that southeast Montgomery County area.