News
Pass-through funds to be used for Grand Parkway frontage road improvements
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, TX – Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack gained unanimous support from Commissioners Court to use a portion of the county’s pass-through funds from the state for frontage road lane improvements along the Grand Parkway.
Improvements will be from Rayford Road all the way through the intersection with Birnham Woods Drive heading toward Grand Oaks High School.
Proposed improvements (from east to west) include:
- Changing the center lane on southbound Rayford Road under the Grand Parkway from a through lane to a shared through/left-turn lane
- Constructing a dedicated right-turn lane from the eastbound frontage road onto Lockeridge Farms Drive
- Widening the frontage road east of Lockeridge Farms Drive to two lanes where it currently merges down to one lane prior to the Grand Parkway off-ramp
- Widening the frontage road to three lanes past the off-ramp up to the approach of the intersection with Birnham Woods Drive
- Constructing a dedicated right-turn lane from the Grand Parkway frontage road onto southbound Birnham Woods Drive
- Constructing a dedicated right-turn lane from northbound Birnham Woods Drive onto the eastbound frontage road
- Widening the frontage road east of Birnham Woods Drive to two lanes where it currently merges down to one lane prior to the Grand Parkway off-ramp
- Widening the frontage road to three lanes past the off-ramp heading toward Grand Oaks High School
- Constructing a dedicated right-turn lane onto Benders Landing Boulevard
To view a presentation of the frontage road improvements, please visit www.precinct3.org/sh-99-eb-frontage-improvements-presentation.
Funding for the project would go toward:
- Environmental assessment
- Surveying
- Right-of-way mapping and acquisition
- Design plans and specifications
- Construction
“Completed and future residential and commercial developments along the Grand Parkway in the vicinity of Rayford Road and Birnham Woods Drive are creating a higher traffic demand than those existing frontage road lanes will be able to handle,” Commissioner Noack stated. “The proposed lane additions along the eastbound frontage road will provide better mobility and safety for residents in those areas.”
Commissioners Court allotted $5 million of the pass-through funds to go toward these improvements. This project is included in a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation identifying priority projects and the court’s desire to use pass-through funds to develop these projects in each precinct.
Details of Pass-Through Funding Agreement with TxDOT:
- Montgomery County still is set to receive approximately $58 million from the Texas Department of Transportation as part of the pass-through funding agreement approved by county voters during a 2005 road bond referendum, as well as by the Texas Transportation Commission.
- The agreement calls for the county to receive more than $174 million from the Texas Department of Transportation at a reimbursement rate of 7 cents per vehicle mile for the construction of road improvement projects along FM 1488, FM 1314, FM 1485, FM 1484 and the direct connectors at Texas 242 and Interstate 45.
- The agreement called for the county to reinvest a minimum of $76 million of those pass-through funds into future transportation projects.
- The minimum amount to be reimbursed annually with all stated projects open to traffic was set at $10.5 million, with a maximum of approximately $17.4 million a year.
- The agreement does not expire until the total amount of funds has been reimbursed to Montgomery County.
For more information about road projects in Precinct 3, contact Andrew DuBois, Precinct 3 Director of Operations, via email at andrew.dubois@mctx.org.
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