Study Indicates Woodlands Parkway Extension Will Have Negative Impact

Bunch Calls For Removal From Montgomery County Road Bonds Proposal.

A Statement & Update from Gordy Bunch regarding Montgomery County Road Bonds Issue:

The residents of Montgomery County have a unique opportunity to come together to pass the first road bond in 10 years. We are sadly a decade behind in infrastructure development and our needs are great in every corner of the county, including The Woodlands where traffic congestion grows every day.

The proposal to spend $22 million to extend Woodlands Parkway out to SH249 needs to be exorcised from the plan because, as the Brown & Gay traffic study clearly shows, it will add almost 6,000 cars to the main artery of The Woodlands every day, with negative impacts during morning and evening rush hours as early as 2018. The unedited report says:

“The peak-hour intersection analyses show that the Woodlands Parkway extension will negatively impact the intersection of Woodlands Parkway at FM 2978 in 2018 and 2025, causing it to exceed acceptable vehicle delays during both peak hours, AM and PM. The impact to the intersection of Woodlands Parkway at Kuykendahl consists of additional vehicle delay only during all three design years, since this intersection already needs to be improved now” B&G Summary #8

The chart below illustrates the additional cars added to Woodlands Parkway between 2978 and Kuykendahl with (build) and without (No-build) the extension. Our first bonds issued in a decade should be for projects that eliminate current mobility issues and not for a project that creates new problems.

TRAFFIC IMPACT ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED WOODLANDS PARKWAY EXTENSION FROM 2978 TO SH249

My goal serving on the Bond Committee was to have a project list that everyone in the county could agree on guaranteeing the bond would pass this time. I cautioned in every meeting that one project - expanding Woodlands Parkway would draw major opposition as people fear another 1960 in their backyard. To date, over 2,000 residents have signed a petition and 73.8% currently oppose the extension according to The Villager On-Line Poll.

It’s time for the county to adjust the project list respecting all constituents as we really need the bond to complete 1488, 242, 2978, Fish Creek, 1097, Research Forest, Rayford Road, 1485, 1314, Hardin Store Rd, Dobbin Huffsmith, 1774, 149, David Memorial, Robinson Rd, Gosling and Kuykendahl. These should all be higher priorities than a $22 million extension of WPK. Over $1.3 Billion in projects were initially identified providing many worthy alternatives to substitute the project off the list. Expanding Woodlands Parkway stayed on the list even though no one seemed to know what impact an extension would have on existing WPK infrastructure. Complicating that impact will be the expanded Bridge and road projects on Gosling and Kuykendahl that will add even more cars onto WPK coming from the south.

I ask again for Judge Doyal and Commissioner Riley to remove the Woodlands Parkway extension from the Bond project list, allowing Montgomery County to begin improving overdue countywide existing infrastructure improvements and reunite our county with a bond project list every community including my Hometown of The Woodlands can support.

Un-Edited CONCLUSIONS of study by Brown & Gay:
The following conclusions have been derived from the traffic impact analysis of the Woodlands Parkway Extension from FM 2978 to SH 249:

  1. The Woodlands Parkway extension will result in more traffic on the existing section of Woodlands Parkway between FM 2978 and Kuykendahl Road consistently for all three design years, 2018, 2025 and 2040.
  2. The Woodlands Parkway extension will cause the existing Woodlands Parkway section west of Kuykendahl traffic volume to exceed the four-lane capacity threshold by a small amount of traffic by 2025.
  3. The Woodlands Parkway extension will cause the existing Woodlands Parkway section east of FM 2978 and west of Branch Crossing Drive to exceed the four-lane capacity threshold by 2040.
  4. The section of Woodlands Parkway east of Branch Crossing Drive and west of Kuykendahl will exceed the four-lane capacity threshold under both scenarios, with or without the extension, by 2040.
  5. The east-west corridor west of FM 2978, composed of FM 1488 and Hardin Store Road, will require widening if the Woodlands Parkway is not extended in 2025. The additional corridor capacity could be accomplished by widening Hardin Store Road from two to four lanes instead of extending Woodlands Parkway to the west. However, this would also require the widening FM 2978 from four to six lanes between Hardin Store Road and Woodlands Parkway by the same year, 2025.
  6. The east-west corridor west of FM 2978, composed of FM 1488 and Hardin Store Road, will require widening if the Woodlands Parkway is extended by 2040, which will require adding four lanes to the corridor in addition to the Woodlands Parkway extension.
  7. The east-west corridor analysis east of FM 2978, composed of FM 1488, Research Forest Drive and Woodlands Parkway, shows that whether the Woodlands Parkway is extended or not, will require additional corridor capacity by 2040.
  8. The peak-hour intersection analyses show that the Woodlands Parkway extension will negatively impact the intersection of Woodlands Parkway at FM 2978 in 2018 and 2025, causing it to exceed acceptable vehicle delays during both peak hours, AM and PM. The impact to the intersection of Woodlands Parkway at Kuykendahl consists of additional vehicle delay only during all three design years, since this intersection already needs to be improved now.
Issues: 
People: 
TexasGOPVote
 

© 2015 TexasGOPVote  | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy