Plans take shape for next phase of Texas 249 tollway
Officials with Montgomery County, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Harris County Toll Road Authority are starting to see key segments of Texas 249 between Harris and Montgomery counties take shape. In April 2015, Harris County opened the first phase of the Tomball Tollway, between Spring-Cypress Road and FM 2920.
Officials with Montgomery County, the Texas Department of Transportation and the Harris County Toll Road Authority are starting to see key segments of Texas 249 between Harris and Montgomery counties take shape.
James Baker, director of transportation Houston region, for Halff Engineers, met with members of the Greater Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce to talk about the progress of the second phase in Montgomery County, between Spring Creek and FM1774 in Pinehurst.
“This is their starter toll road,” Baker said. “It’s probably an ideal project because Harris County is building all that infrastructure up to Spring Creek, and then the Texas Department of Transportation is carrying it north of us, so this was the perfect project for them to get into the business of project development for toll roads.”
In April 2015, Harris County opened the first phase of the Tomball Tollway, between Spring-Cypress Road and FM2920.
The 6.7-mile segment cost $73 million to build, and tallied 7.9 million transactions in all of 2015.
It’s believed that the second phase will attract just as much traffic when it is finally completed within the next two years.
Currently, HCTRA is designing the second phase of the project — a 1.6-mile route that begins at FM 2920 and entends to Spring Creek — which is estimated to cost $120 million.
The design phase for that project is about 60 percent complete, but officials said this will not affect the start date, scheduled for September, said John Tyler, HCTRA’s deputy director of engineering.
The designs will be reviewed internally in March.
Once those plans are finalized, they will be submitted to the Harris County Commissioners Court in August which will allow HCTRA to advertise and receive bids in September.
“We are communicating with utility companies, private and public, to work with them to start their relocation. We have the last property acquisition, with the Lone Star College-Tomball campus. We are having meetings with them and we are working through that process,” Tyler said.
Meanwhile, the design work for Montgomery County’s section is about 30 percent completed, and officials expect to begin seeing bids in June 2017.
Although the projects are staggered, both are ex- pected to be completed by early 2018.