The Grand Parkway between Texas 288 and Interstate 45 has an officially permitted route, though that’s just one step in what could be years of study and planning for another portion of the controversial and costly third ring around Houston.

A record of decision – signaling the end of the long environmental process – was announced Wednesday by the Texas Department of Transportation. Federal officials cleared the project Nov. 30, which is important because anything built after that date would not be eligible for noise abatement paid for by the state.

The route for Segment B starts at Texas 288 near County Road 60 in Brazoria County. The tollway, planned for two lanes in each direction, then swings south to parallel the South Texas Water Co. Canal before joining with Texas 35. The tollway will then mirror Texas 35 northeast, swinging with the highway around Alvin, then break from the highway and head east to connect with I-45 south of League City.

According to officials, the 28.6-mile tollway will require 1,072 acres of new right of way, displacing 13 businesses and 17 residences.

TxDOT estimates the segment to cost $1.2 billion as of July 2016, though cost would be determined by a number of factors, notably when construction begins. Tentatively, officials during the environmental process projected the lanes to be open to traffic in 2035.

The Houston area’s explosive growth, however, has many projects in flux, said Raquelle Lewis, spokeswoman for TxDOT in Houston.

“There is certainly some conversation going on in the Brazoria and Fort Bend areas in terms of connectivity and the development that is happening in the Brazosport area,” Lewis said. “There are a lot of conversations all over the region of what is a priority.”

Ultimately, available money will dictate what gets built. In Texas, transportation officials are flush with new money, but all of it comes with strings attached. Earlier this week, both the State House and State Senate budget makers allocated for the full $2.5 billion of additional transportation funding from the 2015 Prop. 7 referendum, meaning over the biennium a $5.2 billion increase in spending for roads.

As much of the money was expected and locked in by voters with legislative support, transportation officials last year revised long-term spending plans and began planning for the new funds.

Per the language voters approved, all of the money must be spent on highway improvements.

“None of those dollars can be used to advance toll facilities,” Lewis said.

Transit projects also lost out on the additional money.

The likely next step, if officials were to accelerate Segment B, would be studying the feasibility of charging tolls to pay for the road. Though tolls are often maligned by drivers frustrated by the increasing cost of traveling around the area, they are typically successful in the Houston area.

The most recent segments of the Grand Parkway to open, from U.S. 290 to Interstate 45 in northwestern Harris County, have exceeded estimates in terms of use and revenues. Prior to the newest segments opening, the Grand Parkway logged about 2 million transactions per month – meaning vehicles passed under a toll transponder 2 million times. From August to November, the Grand Parkway logged more than 10 million transactions monthly.

For fiscal 2017, which started Sept. 1, the tollway system has generated $34.2 million in revenue based on its latest financial report, which is $15.9 million more than officials estimated.

Other segments planned for the Grand Parkway, envisioned to one day be a 180-mile third loop around the Houston area, are in various stages of planning. TxDOT plans to award construction of an initial phase of the portion from U.S. 59 south to Interstate 10 later this year. The first phase will build one lane in each direction.

The segment from U.S. 59 to Texas 288, called Segment C, also has its environmental clearance, and like Segment B is awaiting some financial study.

Lewis said the projects will go in order of which are most important and practical to build at that time, and that segments that reached environmental clearance first should not be an indication those projects will be built in the order they received federal approval.

A litany of local and state agreements also are major factors. According to the multi-county agreement that accelerated work on the Grand Parkway in the past 12 years, the segments in Fort Bend and Brazoria counties must be tolled. For Segment B, Brazoria and Galveston counties also retain the right to the develop the projects first.

If the counties give up their right to build them, the state can proceed as it did with the most recent segments of the Grand Parkway and a tollway currently under construction along Texas 288 from downtown Houston to Brazoria County.