Grand Parkway plan gets boost from stimulus funds MOVE IT!

Like beauty, “shovel ready” is in the eye of the beholder.

Despite President Barack Obama calling for stimulus funds to go to “shovel ready” projects, the term has no legal or technical definition.

So who decides what qualifies among the thousands of delayed or underfunded transportation projects in Texas and across the U.S.?

Local decision-makers do. In the Houston region, that's the Transportation Policy Council, a 24-member body comprising elected officials or engineers appointed by the eight counties around Houston, and some of the cities in those counties. It also includes representatives from the Metropolitan Transit Authority, Texas Department of Transportation and Port of Houston Authority. The council chose 14 major new transportation projects to spend the stimulus money on. TxDOT proposed another four projects for our region, but the council had to approve those, too.

A Grand design?

One of those four is a 14-mile segment of the Grand Parkway, planned to run across the mostly open Katy Prairie and connect Interstate 10 with U.S. 290. This one project, “Segment E,” will take $181 million of the area's stimulus allocation for road and bridge projects. That's 37 percent of the available pie. The next-costliest project is $50 million—to finish adding direct connector ramps between the Eastex Freeway and Beltway 8.

But is Segment E “shovel ready”? While the project has completed the necessary environmental review with the Federal Highway Administration, it lacks a necessary permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. The permit allows wetlands to be filled in and is needed before construction can begin. Segment E could involve filling in at least 23 acres of wetlands.

There is also the question of two lawsuits that have been filed concerning Segment E and the future development it will enable.

So why was this considered “shovel ready”? The designation—and the stimulus money that came with it—angered urban planning groups and environmentalists who say the road is a waste of taxpayer money since few people presently live out there.

They say the money would be better used to solve the hideous traffic problem of the 290 corridor.

Growing area

In a sense, those critics are re-fighting a battle they have already lost, since the Transportation Policy Council added the Grand Parkway to its agenda of “to do” projects in 2007.

“Look at the growth that's going to happen in this city, out 290, and ... look at the growth going out the I-10 corridor, and you have the opportunity to link those two growth centers, and be ahead of, not playing catch up to congestion,” said Houston City Councilwoman Sue Lovell, a TPC member.

But Grand Parkway opponents had been hoping that the project, though on the “to do” list, would die for lack of funding. The stimulus money changed all that. TxDOT put it on the list.

Segment E “is a priority for the region,” a TxDOT spokesman said in a statement. “If we did not feel it met the standard for ARRA (stimulus) funds, we would not have advanced the project.”

“I was somewhat surprised about the Grand Parkway because it is a little less nailed down than some of the projects,” said Alan Clark, a transportation adviser to the TPC.

Members of the council point out that TxDOT decided Segment E should get stimulus money, and they just approved the choice.

The critics wished they had pushed back a little harder, so the money could go to other roads.

“The Policy Council never asked me to go back to the Commission and ask ‘What if we don't pick the Grand Parkway, what else we can ask?'” Clark said.

“People felt very constrained about their choice, because of the timelines and the hoopla about the money being taken away,” he added.

Changing priorities

But critics say the stimulus pick has had a ripple effect on local priorities. For example, Harris County has cut in half the funding it had planned for the Hempstead Tollway in the 290 corridor. Three weeks ago, the county commissioners reviewed their new capital infrastructure plan for the next five years. Last year, the five-year spending plan called for $2.05 billion to be spent on a Hempstead Tollway and $620,000 on the Grand Parkway. But the new version of the plan provides $1.08 billion for Hempstead and $603 million for the Parkway.

“That's a terrible trade,” said David Crossleyof Houston Tomorrow, a nonprofit that advocates denser development. “If they're lowering the amount of money available to spend on this (Hempstead) project, I'd say that's quite a blow for people who are struggling through congestion on 290 right now.”

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett declined to “read anything” into the changing amount, noting that the five-year capital plan is just that, a plan. Individual projects still must be approved by the Court.

“There's been no slowdown on the Hempstead Tollway,” he said. “There's a design question on how best to connect it to 610.”

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