Study indicates that the extension of Woodlands Parkway will have negative impact

THE WOODLANDS, Texas - 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 #8The 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 WoodlandsParkway extension from 2978 to SH 249 Location Existing Traffic Count 2015 HGAC Projection 2018 HGAC Projection (No Build) 2018 HGAC Projection (Build) 2025 HGAC Projection (No Build) 2025 HGAC Projection (Build) 2040 HGAC Projection (No Build) 2040 HGAC Projection (Build) Woodlands Pkwy, west of FM 2978 (Extension) 21,395 27,834 43,70 Woodlands Pkwy, east of FM 2978 12,878 14,517 15,795 21,762 17,244 26,904 29,112 39,88 Woodlands Pkwy, east of Branch Crossing Dr 28,236 19,616 19,952 23,711 22,011 27,988 30,797 38,10 Woodlands Pkwy, west of Kuykendahl Rd 26,590 32,328 34,015 36,319 40,735 43,314 49,408 52,43 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.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.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.