FortBendNow.com

Updated: Presented as Fort Bend County’s best shot to gain local control over the controversial Grand Parkway, an agreement approved Tuesday appears to insure segments C and D will be developed as tollways.

Specifically, an exhibit attached to the “Market Valuation Waiver Agreement for SH 99 (Grand Parkway)” lays out details about the route and each intersection along Segment C in southeast Fort Bend County, which has yet to be built. (See the complete Segment C terms and conditions here.)

And, the exhibit states that tolled overpasses will be built on Segment D – the only existing portion of the Grand Parkway, stretching from U.S. 59 to Interstate 10. (See the complete Segment D terms and conditions here.)

Fort Bend County Commissioners Court approved signing the agreement – between the county, six other regional counties and the Texas Department of Transportation – in a 3-2 vote Tuesday, with commissioners Andy Meyers and Richard Morrison expressing strong opposition to it.

Designed to move the Grand Parkway development process forward within a framework mandated by Texas Senate Bill 792, the agreement effectively does away with a requirement in the bill that would have forced participants to conduct an extensive study to determine a market value for the huge transportation project.

Meyers and Morrison appeared to object largely on grounds that the market valuation study waiver also could trigger a provision in SB 792 that could force the county to set aside perhaps $100 million or more, putting it into a state account before Grand Parkway development could begin.

Proponents of the agreement, including County Judge Bob Hebert and Commissioner James Patterson, argued that unless Commissioners Court approved the waiver agreement, TXDot most likely would retain control of how the Grand Parkway develops.

Hebert said TXDot has indicated it wants to develop the whole project at once, creating a situation, Hebert said, that would cause Fort Bend County drivers to subsidize development of the rest of the project through higher tolls.

But Morrison noted the agreement passed Tuesday says “the Grand Parkway will be a single project that will ultimately include the full scope of work included in the Terms and Conditions” portion of the agreement. He takes that to mean that the project will be built all at once, resulting in Fort Bend drivers subsidizing construction in other areas.

Hebert has said that won’t be the case. He said demand won’t exist to make Segment C viable for many years, perhaps as many as 20.

Nonetheless, if the county now is on the road to local control of its portion of the Grand Parkway, local control still means turning the project into a giant toll road, based on the “Draft Terms and Conditions” included as part of the agreement approved on Tuesday.

“There’s a whole list of controversial things” written into those terms and conditions, Morrison said Wednesday, “starting with Section C. C doesn’t need to be built. There’s no need for it.”

Details of development of Segment C, according to the draft terms and conditions, include a “third-level bridge” and “partial interchange” over U.S. 59 south; an extended frontage road from 59 to Rabbs Bayou; and replacement of Crabb River Road.

Also, a “partial diamond” interchange at FM 762 consisting of two ramps north of the road and a main lane bridge “over cross street and BNSF Railroad” tracks. The plans call for a relocation of a portion of FM 762; and an overpass at an extended Reading Road from Berdett Road to FM 762.

The Segment C plans also call for five more full-diamond overpasses along the route (“The huge problem of interchanges we were trying to get away from,” Morrison said), and 10 more overpasses.

Much of Segment C is in Morrison’s county Precinct 1. The first-term commissioner campaigned in part on his stance against building the segment as it has been proposed.

Asked if he had any input into the terms and conditions as set in the agreement Commissioners Court passed on Tuesday, Morrison said “not a bit.” Those terms, he said, came via negotiations handled by Precinct 4 Commissioner James Patterson, in his role as chairman of the Houston Galveston Area Council’s Transportation and Policy Council.

“I’m not surprised,” Morrison added, “I wouldn’t expect the Grand Parkway Association and their allies to give me any input.”

Patterson was unavailable for comment Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, on the existing Segment D from U.S. 59 to the Westpark Tollway, main-lane bridges and tolled overpasses are planned “when travel demand warrants” at Morton and Mason roads; at “a future Peek Road;” at Bellaire Boulevard and at the Westpark Tollway.

Other Segment D overpasses that may prove controversial are two in New Territory – one called for over New Territory Boulevard and the other over U.S. 90A.