David Gornet Q&A

The Grand Parkway will traverse seven counties when completed. 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 you are doing something in their county that might have impacts elsewhere as well. You have got to get them all to understand that. Sometimes one county has to give a little because there would be offsetting impacts in another county.

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

Zachry-Odebrecht's website

www.grandparkway99.com. Part of their contract with TxDOT required them to have public involvement office so that people knew about all of that. If you go there you can get signed up for alerts.

The website will have the most up to date information. 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. So we hope there is going to be [a] limited need for closing cross streets and existing roads, but the public will be able to make themselves aware of what's going on by going to that website.

Is Grand Parkway Segment E on schedule to open by 2013? Are Segments F1, F2 and G on schedule to be completed in 2015?

Yes. They are quick turnarounds. They are very aggressive construction schedules. It's a green field project. They can go out on Segment E and clear miles of right of way, put their set up, dig their ditches, put the dirt embankment in there, set the forms for the pavers, and that paver can go and pour two lanes plus the shoulders all at one time and just go. And he can do a couple of miles.

The schedule is reflective of the conditions that they have. They do not have cars going 70 mph right next to the contractors working there. It's wide-open space, so they are able to do it quickly.

What kind of economic impact can residents near Grand Parkway's path anticipate in the years following the highway's completion?

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 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.