Alan Clark, director of H-GAC’s Metropolitan Planning Organization, said engineering firm Brown and Gay was selected for work on the south Montgomery County mobility plan. Clark said Brown and Gay has teamed up with four other firms to complete different areas of the study and was selected out of the four teams to complete bids for the project.

 

“They have a tremendous amount of experience with working with counties and cities on mobility plans,” Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said. “H-GAC was very comfortable with selecting them.”

 

The goal of the mobility plan is to prioritize transportation projects on H-GAC’s 2040 Regional Transportation Plan, which prioritizes future projects to receive federal funding. Clark said the RTP will be compiled in spring 2014.

 

Although the mobility plan will not be completed until the fall, H-GAC and the South Montgomery County Transportation Task Force should have some of the key projects organized in time to make the list.

 

Projects included on the scope of work for the plan include the inventory and assessment of all Precinct 3 roadways and bridges, the evaluation of current intersections, signal synchronization and congestion, and economic development along the Grand Parkway.

 

The plan will also consider new potential roadways, such as a north-south roadway to connect Rayford Road with Hwy. 242 and east-west thoroughfares along I-45.

“One of the important challenges [for] the steering committee is the east-west access across I-45 along the Grand Parkway,” Clark said.

 

Work done by the consultant did not begin until Oct. 1, Clark said. However, residents can anticipate meetings and other forms of public outreach sometime later this year or in early 2014. He said an open house could be held in that time frame to learn which projects most concern residents.

 

“Public input is like having an extra unpaid consultant,” Clark said. “Many of the transportation issues they confront every day are things we will be considering in this project.”

Although the contract and costs were not finalized, Clark said the plan is estimated to cost $500,000, with H-GAC splitting the bill between Montgomery County and other south county entities, including The Woodlands Township, Oak Ridge North and Shenandoah.

 

The plan also will compile data being used for two concurrent, separate studies: a south Montgomery County transit plan and a Montgomery County thoroughfare plan.

 

“We really want to spend one dollar on each particular thing, rather then have to come back again to spend a dollar on the same exact thing,” Clark said.

 

Clark said engineering firm Steer Davis Gleave was selected as the consultant for the transit plan, which will examine transit issues in The Woodlands and other areas of south Montgomery County. The plan is estimated to cost $300,000, with The Woodlands Township providing $60,000. He said it will be completed in the same time frame as the mobility plan.

 

A request for proposals was also issued in September for a consultant for the countywide thoroughfare plan, Clark said, which will study current and future concerns with major county roadways.

 

The plan will use data compiled by Brown and Gay, including transportation data, economic development, future land use and population growth. The countywide plan could cost $300,000, with the county funding $100,000.

 

Source: Impact News