State approves plan to toll parts of Texas 249
State officials are proceeding with plans for a tollway along Texas 249 in Grimes and Montgomery counties but not nearly as far as first envisioned.
The Texas Transportation Commission on Thursday approved designating the project between Pinehurst and Todd Mission as a design-build toll project.
Perhaps more significant is what the commission decided would not be tolled: the segment northwest of Todd Mission to Navasota.
“I am personally delighted segment two will be built on a non-tolled basis,” Transportation Commissioner Bruce Bugg said.
Commissioners also chose Williams Brothers Construction to build the project, including the tolled segment to the south and the northern segment to Texas 105 in Navasota. Combined, the two segments stretch 23 miles. Officials said they anticipate having a contract with Williams Brothers by September.
Based on the current timeline, construction could begin in a few months, with the tolled segment opening in June 2020 and the entire route open in January 2022.
Williams and its engineering partners will be paid $561.8 million to design and build the road and another $30.9 million to maintain it for 15 years. The money will come from a combination of bonds, which the state will pay back by charging tolls, and state highway money.
‘A deal is a deal’
Some residents and officials in Montgomery County, citing the new state highway funding voters approved in 2014 and 2015, argued the state should develop the entire road without tolls. The reliance on tolls has frustrated some residents who pay fuel taxes but believe they are not getting sufficient benefits, with the state asking them to pay to use new roads. Tea party groups in recent months have targeted the project, seeking an end to the tolls.
Evan Besong, a spokesman for Montgomery County Commissioner James Noack, said if voters were asked about the project today, the use of tolls “would be voted down.”
A handful of residents called the project double taxation and noted the Texas Republican Party platform and Gov. Greg Abbott have expressed opposition to tolls.
“I am against all toll roads,” said Gregory Parker, a former Comal County commissioner who lives in Montgomery County.
While he understands the funding needs, he said tolling is punitive on frequent users to solve a hightraffic issues like during the Texas Renaissance Fair held in Todd Mission and on Saturdays when Houston-area residents flock to College Station for Texas A&M University football games. Parker said he would prefer an incremental increase in taxes, provided government could be trusted to spend wisely.
“That way everybody pays for the roads and drives on the roads,” he said.
When the project started, however, tolls were much more palatable to officials, which Transportation Commissioner Victor Vandergriff noted.
“This project was a product of a bygone era,” he said, before later noting, “I understand the angst of this, but a deal is a deal.”
Project delays
Taking away the tolls would delay construction of the project, Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director James Bass said. TxDOT plans to borrow $225 million to start construction. Despite having additional money because of voter-approved Prop. 1 and Prop. 7, state officials have distributed much of that money to specific projects.
“The project would not be currently funded,” Bass said.
The tollway is a continuation of other toll projects in the Houston area. Harris County opened the first segment of a tollway along Texas 249 in 2015 and is building to the Montgomery County line. Montgomery County, which formed a toll road authority for the project in 2013, will build its portion as a tollway to Pinehurst. That decision also has been the source of political friction in recent weeks, notably from Noack and other toll opponents in Montgomery County. Local officials pressured Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal to back away from the county’s plans to toll the road, but Doyal countered that it was the prudent way to get the road built soon.
Others, however, said any delay in building the road as western parts of the county grow would only keep drivers stuck in traffic for years to come.
“(The opponents) don’t sit in traffic trying to get to Tomball like we do,” said Magnolia City Administrator Paul Mendes.