Grand Parkway Schedules Next Public Hearing

[pineda]

story from the "This Week" section in the Chronicle today

According to Klein ISD officials, the Public Hearing for the Second Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Study for Segments E, F-1, F-2 & G of the Grand Parkway Project in the Spring area have been scheduled for January 25th and 26th in the Auditorium of Klein Collins High School. A starting time has not been announced yet in the Texas Register or the Federal Register, but in the past, these meetings usually start at 7:00 p.m. and last until about 11:00 p.m. If you're planning to attend, be sure to get there early. Unlike other Public Hearings, these tend to draw significant crowds of interested persons. This time around, you will likely also see in attendance several people running for the soon to be vacated seat of Senator Jon Lindsay of District 7. The contenders will likely include Dan Patrick, Mark Ellis, Peggy Hamric and others. Hamric has said she's in favor of the Grand Parkway, Mark Ellis has denounced it, and Dan Patrick is still gathering information. Of course, Senator Jon Lindsay ("the father of the Hardy tollroad") is in rabid favor of it.

[MaxConcrete]

This was discussed at the November Texas Transportation Commission meeting. Apparently, changes to the alignment will be minimal. The TxDOT-HCTRA dispute has not been resolved but Treitsch seems to suggest that he is optimistic for a settlement in the first few months of 2005.

Overall, I'm not sure whether recent events make the F-2 project more or less likely to be built. My view is that the probability it will be built is around 66% (and the probability it will be cancelled is 34%). The cancellation scenario plays out like this: TxDOT and HCTRA continue their dispute indefinitely. Development continuous and blocks off the preferred alignment and other alignments. An anti-Grand Parkway official is elected. Project dies.

(November meeting transcript)

MR. TRIETSCH: To kind of go over the F-2 segment, the one in Spring that is probably the most controversial. We've spent a year and a half re-looking at different routes. And then as David said, we'll have our public hearings in January on that, but we wanted to give everybody kind of a heads-up. It's still going to be controversial, it did not change greatly.

The other issue is not only with Grand Parkway but all of our toll projects, we continue to work with the Harris County Toll Road Authority to come up with a financing scheme, kind of a blanket, or at least a concept, and we're actually, I think, a lot of people -- I keep getting questions we're mad at each other. We're still talking to HCTRA and I still have breakfast once a month with Art Story. This is a difficult thing, this is a change.

You know, we're not giving it away anymore and we're just trying to come up with something equitable that the Harris County Commissioners Court -- who is the board of directors for Harris County Toll Road Authority -- will approve and something that you will approve.

The TxDOT-HCTRA dispute has not been resolved but Treitsch seems to suggest that he is optimistic for a settlement in the first few months of 2005.

2006, that is

[pineda]

link to transcript from TxDOT meeting in November where David Gornet gave update on Grand Parkway project in Spring

Interesting comment from Gary Trietsch about "we're not giving it away anymore". I had heard that the Grand Parkway project is low-man on the totem pole as far as HCTRA is concerned. HCTRA supposedly has concerns over agreements with TxDOT that need to be resolved as far as a Beltway 8 Northeast project and the 290 project goes. Those are the priorities with HCTRA, not the Grand Parkway project.

Also, I understand that Joe Nixon has thrown his hat into the ring for Senate District 7. No word out of his camp yet on where he stands on the Grand Parkway project. Don't know much about him either.

[MaxConcrete]

link to transcript from TxDOT meeting in November where David Gornet gave update on Grand Parkway project in Spring

The transcript is very long, but included in it is an extensive discussion of Hurricane evacuation and new priorities that will be set to accommodate evacuation. The priorities are SH 146, SH 36 (from Freeport to Rosenberg), and the Grand Parkway. These projects will be moved up and constructed sooner rather than later (probably within 5-10 years).

Clearly, Grand Parkway sections B (45s to 288), C (288 to 59s), and E (10w to 290) will probably get advanced under this new priority. The impact on section F-2 is unclear, since it is not as critical for evacuation. Still, I would think that completion of the entire loop will be an objective and this will tend to increase the probably that F-2 will be built.

Edited December 15, 2005 by MaxConcrete

[pineda]

MR. TRIETSCH: Harris County Toll Road Authority did jump out and did some work on Grand Parkway/290, and told them all along we don't have an agreement. And I think they've spent enough money that they'd like to have an agreement in place -- which I don't blame them one iota -- and hopefully in the next few months we'll be bringing something forward to you, again, as a general concept that then we'd work on each individual project and tweak it probably differently, but how we would approach these projects in working with Harris County Toll Road Authority or Fort Bend Toll Road Authority or Brazoria County Toll Road Authority.

MR. WILLIAMSON: Thank you.

MR. HOUGHTON: We're leveraging our dollars is what you're saying.

MR. TRIETSCH: Yes, and like the Grand Parkway, our preliminary numbers show it as a whole about on breakeven basis, but there are segments that are very profitable -- if I might use that word -- there's also segments that are money-losers, and they're not all in the same county. So we have to move the money from the profitable to the non-profitable ones, and TxDOT can do that. I'm not sure an individual county toll road authority can, just politically.

[MaxConcrete]

I think it is safe to assume that F-2 is the most profitable section, probably followed by F-1, E, and G.

The sections south of Houston are certainly the financial losers, and it sounds like TxDOT wants F-2 users to subsidize those sections. One more thing to make Spring residents happy. :-)

[pineda]

Gary Trietsch mentions that HCTRA has spent some money studying the Grand Parkway project. Actually, Harris County Commissioner's Court gave HCTRA $5.6 million to study the routes already being studied by the Grand Parkway Association. In essence, a study of redundancy. I wonder how much of that $5.6 million was spent by HCTRA before Art Storey slammed the brakes on the Grand Parkway project?

[pineda]

(Also, I understand that Joe Nixon has thrown his hat into the ring for Senate District 7. No word out of his camp yet on where he stands on the Grand Parkway project. )

I just heard that Joe Nixon has come out against the Grand Parkway project in the Spring area.

That leaves Ellis and Nixon against, Hamric for, and Patrick undecided.

Edited December 16, 2005 by pineda