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WORK PLANNED IN 2022 The Woodlands-area projects aim to ease congestion or improve safety.
FM 1488
GOSLING ROAD
Project: widening to four lanes between Creekside Forest Drive and Gatewood Reserve Lane and building a bridge over Spring Creek Timeline: Dec. 6, 2021-early 2023 Cost: $8.2 million Funding sources: Harris County Precinct 4* and Montgomery County Precinct 3
GATEWOOD RESERVE LN.
1488
45
2978
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Project: FM 1488 improvements between Mostyn Drive in Magnolia and I 45 Timeline: TBD Cost: $11 million Funding sources: Harris County Precinct 4* and Montgomery County Precinct 3
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ANDREW CHRISTMAN COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
CHANDLER FRANCE COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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Collaboration between entities occurs frequently in The Woodlands area, but changing boundaries and evolving needs create challenges for long-term planning, o cials said “Roads don’t end at county lines and city lines,” said Andrea French, execu- tive director of Transportation Advo- cacy Group-Houston, which advocates for infrastructure funding. “The ability to work together is critical.” Majormobility needs Nationally, an emphasis on trans- portation infrastructure in 2022 is re ected in President Joe Biden’s signing into law a $1.2 trillion Infra- structure Investment and Jobs Act on Nov. 6. Texas is expected to get about $35 billion of that funding, while existing federal aid programs will receive $265.4 billion over ve years,
according to Chandra Bhat at The Uni- versity of Texas. Craig Raborn, transportation direc- tor of metropolitan planning orga- nization Houston-Galveston Area Council, said Houston-area entities will have 11 new grant programs to apply for. However, Raborn cautioned that other federal funding and regu- latory hurdles needed to be cleared before the H GAC or other planning organizations can begin funding allo- cation. Harris and Montgomery coun- ties are within the H GAC service area and handle some road needs within The Woodlands, but as of January it was not known whether the region would receive funding. On top of uncertainty regarding future federal funding availabil- ity, Montgomery County has nearly completed projects from its last
$280 million mobility bond, approved by voters in 2015. Early 2022marks the expected completion of the last Mont- gomery County Precinct 3 project, a $3.57 million widening of Kuykendahl Road between Research Forest and Lake Woodlands drives. Although a new major thorough- fare plan was approved by county commissioners in 2021, discussion of plans for a new bond had not started as of early 2022. However, Precinct 2 completed a mobility study in 2021, removing sev- eral projects that residents opposed, including the possibility of a Wood- lands Parkway extension. Precinct 2 only touches The Woodlands at the north andwestern borders, but collab- oration is needed between precincts at highly traveled points around those boundaries, o cials have said.
For example, one area where col- laboration would be needed for a project is at the heavily tra cked intersection of Research Forest Drive and Grogans Mill Road. Montgom- ery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack stated in mid-Decem- ber there are no plans for overpass or underpass at the intersection. On the west side of The Woodlands, although a long-discussed Woodlands Parkway extension was removed from the county’s thoroughfare plan, o - cials have said a project underway to extend Woodtrace Boulevard from Hwy. 249 to FM 2978—about a quar- ter-mile south of the Woodlands Park- way—amounts to the same thing. “The Woodlands Parkway exten- sion, now rebranded Woodtrace Extension, will drive tra c into the western parts of The Woodlands,” Gordy Bunch, chair of The Woodlands Township board of directors, said in an email. Michael Rusk, transportation vice president with LJA Engineering— which is overseeing the Woodtrace Boulevard project being funded by Westwood Magnolia Parkway Improvement District, Montgomery County Precinct 2 and several devel- opers—said the extension will be a two-lane road with right of way for up to four lanes as funding allows. The rst phase was completed in 2021, and the remaining phases will go out to bid this year, he said. Regional challenges O cials are also grappling with the challenge of a forthcoming precinct
Westward connection
The rst phase of the Woodtrace Boulevard project, connecting Dobbin-Hu smith Road to FM 2978, is under development.
Project completion estimate: 2024 Cost: $8 million (Phase 1), TBD (Phases 2-4)
Clearing: Completed in 2021
Funding sources: Westwood Magnolia Parkway Improvement District, Montgomery County Precinct 2, local developers
Earthwork: Contract being bid in January 2022 Bridge over Dry Creek: In design phase
2978
Paving: Bidding expected by end of 2022
DOBBIN HUFFSMITH RD.
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SOURCE: LJA ENGINEERING COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
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COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM
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