Contract paves way for 288 toll project
Company to assume much of the funding responsibility for 10-mile stretch
This time next year, work to build toll lanes to ease congestion along Texas 288 between Pearland and the Texas Medical Center should be well underway, according to officials with the state’s transporta- tion department and Brazoria County.
That’s the prediction after the March 4 announcement of a contract between the Texas Department of Transportation and Blueridge Transportation Group that puts most of the funding burden on the contractor. The agreement allows Blueridge to proceed with design, utility coordination, surveying and other pre-construction activities for toll lanes in the median on a 10-mile section of Texas 288 from U.S. 59 to the boundary between Harris and Brazoria counties.
In the deal, most of the tollway construction funding — an estimated $815 million — is being financed by Blueridge through a first-time roadway funding mechanism for the TxDOT’s Houston district.
The state is providing an additional $17.1 million to build tolled connector roads for the Texas Medical Center. According to the agreement between TxDOT and Blueridge, the
contractor is financing the project in exchange for all toll revenues, according to Danny Perez, spokesman for the department’ s Houston Region.
As a separate project, the Brazoria County Toll Road Authority is spending an estimated $100 million to pick up where Blueridge leaves off and extend the toll lanes five miles further south to County Road 58.
The start of work can’t come soon enough for many Pearland-area commuters and patients who inch along in creeping traffic to and from the medical center.
“The citizens of southern Harris County and Brazoria County have waited a long time to see this project move forward,” said Kevin Cole, past board chairman of the Greater 288 Partnership, a group he co-founded to advocate for regional trans- portation needs.
Agreement took time
Although TxDOT awarded its section of the tollway project in Harris County to Blueridge in February 2015, the project was dormant about a year while state officials completed the development agreement with the company. That left Brazoria County waiting to move forward on its toll lanes because work cannot begin until after Blueridge starts construction on the Harris County side.
Attempts to reach Blueridge officials by presstime were unsuccessful.
The medical center is considered to be the largest of its kind and employs an estimated 106,000 people, according to the Texas Medical Center Corp.
“The largest number of the center’s employees that live in a concentrated area live in the Pearland-Manvel ZIP codes,” said Cole, who is a former Pearland City Council member and longtime city resident.
The residential growth has turned what should be a 15- to 20-minute trip between Pearland and the medical center into a slow creep of at least an hour during morning and evening rush hours. Work may start yet this year
The Harris County portion of the tollway will include four tolled lanes, two in each direction within the existing median. Blueridge also will construct a new Beltway 8 interchange, including eight direct connectors, reconstruct eight direct connectors at Interstate 610 with added access to toll lanes and build two new tolled direct connectors to the medical center.
TxDOT officials antici- pate construction on the Harris County portion of the tollway will begin by year’s end and project it to be complete sometime mid-2019.
Perez said it took TxDOT and the Texas Attorney General’s office time to “dot all the I’s and cross all the T’s” because the publicprivate funding mechanism is a first in the region.
“We are excited to achieve contract execution, which is a key milestone in advancing this important public-private partnership,” Jeff Mosely, vice chair of the Texas Transportation Commission, said in a news release. “This is a first for the Houston region and will bring much-needed congestion relief to the Texas 288 corridor years ahead of what could have traditionally been accomplished.”
According to TxDOT, the development agreement with Blueridge will allow the lanes to be finished faster than traditional funding tools because the private developer will absorb most project risks. If the developer default son the project for any reason, provisions would allow the state to take control of the project, suspend work and recover financial damages, according to a TxDOT document posted to its website.
Brazoria County’s portion of the tollway work is in the pre-construction phase, which includes design, utility coordination and surveying.
“Ours is a five-mile section on the tail end (of the tollway),” said Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta Jr. “Without the Harris County section, we have no project.” ‘Slow-moving turtle’ describes process
He compared the pro- cess leading up to TxDOT’s contract agreement with Blueridge to a slow-moving turtle.
“(TxDOT) thought it would have a signed deal first quarter this year, but originally they thought they’d have it at the end of last year,” Sebesta said. “We are not a party to that.”
Brazoria County could move into construction six to nine months after work begins on the Harris County side, allowing the Brazoria County Toll Road Authority to simultaneously work to develop the tollway.
Sebesta said the process of completing the agreement between TxDOT and Blueridge was “painfully slow” and frustrating to many Brazoria County residents who have heard for years that toll lanes were coming.
The toll fee will be wellworth it for many county residents, he said.
“They can have more time with their family, more time at home, more time watching their kids play soccer, baseball, softball or whatever,” Sebesta said. “They can maybe stay at home a little bit longer in the morning to see their kids off to school before they go to work instead of having to go to work before their kids even wakeup.”
The toll project is necessary as the Pearland area experiences more residential growth, he said.
“That growth won’t be there if we continue to have congestion issues,” Sebesta said.
Once the toll lanes are added, the existing roadway will remain free of tolls.