Fort Bend Tollway Connection To Loop 610 West & South Post Oak Rd.

[DNAguy]

 

Curious that I've never seen a proposal to use the High voltage ROW for the extension.....

 

[Avossos]

12 minutes ago, DNAguy said:

 

Curious that I've never seen a proposal to use the High voltage ROW for the extension.....

 

 

Seems very unlikely they would go that far East. The Post oak spur there is the perfect connection piece.

 

In all likelihood, they just need to find a way of getting from main street to Post Oak. The Spur that enters 610 is already built and would be a natural fit as an extension to connect the roads.

 

My parents live in Fort Bend. If this connector happened, it would be possible to get from downtown to their house in Missouri City in 20 minutes... which is amazing.

[samagon]

42 minutes ago, Avossos said:

 

Seems very unlikely they would go that far East. The Post oak spur there is the perfect connection piece.

 

In all likelihood, they just need to find a way of getting from main street to Post Oak. The Spur that enters 610 is already built and would be a natural fit as an extension to connect the roads.

 

My parents live in Fort Bend. If this connector happened, it would be possible to get from downtown to their house in Missouri City in 20 minutes... which is amazing.

 

this would be a thing for about 6 months until developers started making the area that the tollroad services more dense with subdivisions, and apartments. then your parents will have the same commute time they do now, except the entire area will have a much larger population and there will be a bigger strain on local traffic than their currently is.

[cspwal]

Good thing Missouri City has a BRT line, an express bus, and a light rail extension (pending a partnership?) planned to help take some of those people downtown

[zaphod]

That illustration makes me concerned they would cut through the Willow Waterhole greenspace to build this. That's unfortunate.

 

I would think there is enough room to build an elevated viaduct with support pylons down the center of Post Oak as it exists now.

[MaxConcrete]

On 2/22/2020 at 2:28 PM, zaphod said:

That illustration makes me concerned they would cut through the Willow Waterhole greenspace to build this. That's unfortunate.

 

I would think there is enough room to build an elevated viaduct with support pylons down the center of Post Oak as it exists now.

A preliminary schematic I saw many years ago showed the toll road extension running parallel to US 90A on the north side of the railroad tracks, then curving north into the Post Oak corridor. So any impact on Willow Waterhole was minimal with that design. I also seem to recall it was mostly at ground level along Post Oak, with needed right-of-way acquired on the west side from the strip centers, but that memory is dim and could be wrong. Of course all of that is being re-evaluated for the new report, but I don't expect the alignment along the railroad to change.

 

I view the future of the project as somewhat uncertain due to County Judge Hidalgo's lack of enthusiasm for expanding the toll road system (or any road, for that matter). Projects which are listed on the HCTRA project site but not yet under construction should proceed to construction. (But nothing is certain until a contract is awarded)   https://www.hctra.org/MajorProjects

This project is still proposed/conceptual, and would surely be axed if Hidalgo wants to curtail expansion of the toll road system.

Edited February 24, 2020 by MaxConcrete

[DNAguy]

Instead of building a concurrently running toll road and tie-in to the stub, I've got some ideas:

 

1.) Use the powerline ROW (like I said earlier) - but probably won't work / the neighborhood that it would run through would reject it.... even more than they're going to reject the tollroad running along Post Oak. In addition, the direct connect tying into 610 would require home demo.

 

2.) Build direct connectors at 610 for the existing Alt 90. - This would require a lot less $ than a new toll-road. There would be ROW purchase.... but a lot less $ I would think.

 

As far as the 90 corridor as a whole, I think a lot of thought should be given to:

 

1.) Extending a tollway along Holmes road to tie into the 288's tollway / 610 east. This would actually make 90 alt an almost complete alternative to taking 59 into downtown and the medical center (the medical center is less of a need it is really already accessible via 90. But this does split / provide an alternative path to the medical center). In addition, it almost makes for a new east/west way of traversing Houston that can help in moving goods / products / people in Houston. It kind of provides a pseudo-tie from Southwest Houston to the Ship Channel.... and tying one area of heavily industrial Houston (South of Reliant / Almeda corridor) to another (Ship Channel / Petrochemical 225 complex)

However, you'd have to expand the sections of 90 between Chimney Rock and the Mainstreet. But you would necessarily have to build a completely separate road. My guess is that the section would have to be upgraded to more of a interstate quality with better traffic management via separate frontage roads and on/off ramps to S. Post Oak. 

 

2.) Completely rebuild the S. Post Oak and 90 overpasses / bridges. Grade is way to steep. It slows down traffic. S. Post oak should be an underpass under the railroad. Then the main 90 traffic can be at a more gradual grade seeing as it no longer needs to be such a high bridge.

 

[cspwal]

But you can see so much from that bridge

[MaxConcrete]

9 hours ago, DNAguy said:

Instead of building a concurrently running toll road and tie-in to the stub, I've got some ideas:

 

1.) Use the powerline ROW (like I said earlier) - but probably won't work / the neighborhood that it would run through would reject it.... even more than they're going to reject the tollroad running along Post Oak. In addition, the direct connect tying into 610 would require home demo.

 

2.) Build direct connectors at 610 for the existing Alt 90. - This would require a lot less $ than a new toll-road. There would be ROW purchase.... but a lot less $ I would think.

 

As far as the 90 corridor as a whole, I think a lot of thought should be given to:

 

1.) Extending a tollway along Holmes road to tie into the 288's tollway / 610 east. This would actually make 90 alt an almost complete alternative to taking 59 into downtown and the medical center (the medical center is less of a need it is really already accessible via 90. But this does split / provide an alternative path to the medical center). In addition, it almost makes for a new east/west way of traversing Houston that can help in moving goods / products / people in Houston. It kind of provides a pseudo-tie from Southwest Houston to the Ship Channel.... and tying one area of heavily industrial Houston (South of Reliant / Almeda corridor) to another (Ship Channel / Petrochemical 225 complex)

However, you'd have to expand the sections of 90 between Chimney Rock and the Mainstreet. But you would necessarily have to build a completely separate road. My guess is that the section would have to be upgraded to more of a interstate quality with better traffic management via separate frontage roads and on/off ramps to S. Post Oak. 

 

2.) Completely rebuild the S. Post Oak and 90 overpasses / bridges. Grade is way to steep. It slows down traffic. S. Post oak should be an underpass under the railroad. Then the main 90 traffic can be at a more gradual grade seeing as it no longer needs to be such a high bridge.

 

1) As you say, not feasible due to environmental/neighborhood issues.

2) Those connectors are definitely needed, but are not being planned as far as I know. I submitted comments to HGAC that the ramps should be studied for possible inclusion in planning documents.

 

1) Interesting idea, but I don't know if it could be justified if the Fort Bend Tollway is connected to Loop 610 on the currently-proposed route. Even if proposed connection does not proceed, it is six miles to SH 288, which will be far more expensive than the 1.3 miles along Post Oak road for the proposed route.

2) That will be expensive, I'm thinking $100+ million.

[hbcu]

if only they would've done it right originally but that made too much sense.

 

If you go Chimney Rock to Gasmer you'll avoid touching a large group of people. Or you replace the cement plant, waste plant at the corner.

[MaxConcrete]

The proposed toll road along Post Oak Road connecting the Fort Bend Parkway is not going to happen, at least not anytime in the foreseeable future.

 

Today the commissioner's court approved a resolution to suspend any further study of it and cancel a consultant contract currently in progress.

 

It is permanently dead? Probably. It appears that the new policy of Commissioner's Court is to end all future expansion of the toll road system, and only a few previous commitments will move forward, such as some ramps at 225 and the Sam Houston Tollway.

 

See part 2 of the video

https://harriscountytx.new.swagit.com/videos/79636

[Triton]

1 hour ago, MaxConcrete said:

The proposed toll road along Post Oak Road connecting the Fort Bend Parkway is not going to happen, at least not anytime in the foreseeable future.

 

Today the commissioner's court approved a resolution to suspend any further study of it and cancel a consultant contract currently in progress.

 

It is permanently dead? Probably. It appears that the new policy of Commissioner's Court is to end all future expansion of the toll road system, and only a few previous commitments will move forward, such as some ramps at 225 and the Sam Houston Tollway.

 

See part 2 of the video

https://harriscountytx.new.swagit.com/videos/79636

I completely agree. It's an unnecessary project that would affect so many businesses. And that's coming from someone who drives to Sienna Plantation for family nearly every weekend! What makes more sense to me are direct connectors from 610 to 90.

[Avossos]

My whole family is also in Sienna Plantation. If they could connect FBTR to 610 in anyway, that would be huge! It would shave off 10/15 minutes...

 

I was hoping that they would find a way to get this done. I feel - like so many road projects - the vision is only partially achieved. Hardy / Fort Bend / That spur project by UH that they demolished so many homes for ROW years ago...

 

Why can't we just finish what we start?

[skooljunkie]

57 minutes ago, Avossos said:

My whole family is also in Sienna Plantation. If they could connect FBTR to 610 in anyway, that would be huge! It would shave off 10/15 minutes...

 

I was hoping that they would find a way to get this done. I feel - like so many road projects - the vision is only partially achieved. Hardy / Fort Bend / That spur project by UH that they demolished so many homes for ROW years ago...

 

Why can't we just finish what we start?

 

good 'nuf

[hbcu]

On 10/1/2020 at 2:14 PM, Avossos said:

My whole family is also in Sienna Plantation. If they could connect FBTR to 610 in anyway, that would be huge! It would shave off 10/15 minutes...

 

I was hoping that they would find a way to get this done. I feel - like so many road projects - the vision is only partially achieved. Hardy / Fort Bend / That spur project by UH that they demolished so many homes for ROW years ago...

 

Why can't we just finish what we start?

 had relatives living off OST and Beekman and now you see nothing- Bulldozed those homes for nothing - Spur 5 is decades away

[Houston19514]

6 hours ago, hbcu said:

 had relatives living off OST and Beekman and now you see nothing- Bulldozed those homes for nothing - Spur 5 is decades away

 

I thought construction on Spur 5 was scheduled to start in 2025.

[hbcu]

hope so - they bulldozed those homes decades ago - but they got to acquire more land from what I see