Planners put brakes on Texas 249 toll road ; Tomball Parkway will include free lanes in the mix

October 12, 2004

Rad Sallee, Houston Chronicle

State highway planners said Monday that they have abandoned an unpopular proposal to convert an eight-mile segment of Texas 249, the Tomball Parkway, into a toll road to pay for extending it northward.

Instead, they told 30 officials, residents and business owners from northwest Harris County that other funding options will be considered, including a mix of free and tolled lanes such as those being built on the Katy Freeway and possible private sector involvement.

Bruce Hillegeist, president of the Tomball Area Chamber of Commerce, said the announcement by Gary Trietsch, district engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation, helps allay concerns that a toll road would harm "the vitality and growth of our businesses."

"I was educated," Hillegeist said after Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson explained the financial realities of road building.

Tim Aimone, of Hewlett-Packard, a major employer in the area, said a proposal by County Judge Robert Eckels to use a mix of free lanes and Katy Freeway-style HOT lanes - toll lanes that high-occupancy vehicles and buses can use for free - sounds like "a win-win proposition."

New funding tool

The targeted segment, from the Sam Houston Tollway to a point two miles north of Spring Cypress Road, consists of a six- to eight-lane freeway with three-lane frontage roads. Its conversion to a toll road would have been the state's first use of a new funding tool approved by the Legislature last year.

The Texas Transportation Commission requires all major new road projects and expansions to be studied to see if toll financing is feasible.

The proposed extension of the segment through Tomball to Pinehurst and eventually Navasota could still be developed as a toll road, Trietsch said. Now, that stretch is a patchwork of three-lane frontage roads and a four- to six-lane highway with stoplights.

Hillegeist said a number of people have told him they are not opposed to a toll road north of the current freeway, although a chamber resolution opposes building one as far as Pinehurst in Montgomery County.

Businesses' concern

A major concern for Willowbrook Mall is that if shoppers had to pay toll to get there, many would stay away, said general manager Walt Plonski.

Four years of construction on the Tomball Parkway "had a big impact on business," he said.

Plonski said a mix of toll and free lanes "is certainly more palatable."

He was less worried about tolls on the northern extension, which he said will be up to the residents who live there.

Trietsch denied that his bosses told him to back off the toll idea.

"We talk to everybody, we listen to everybody. It's not going to sell. It's pretty obvious," he said.

Few options

Opponents of the plan who spoke at Monday's meeting, held at Tomball College, included state Reps. Peggy Hamric and Corbin Van Arsdale and state Sen. Jon Lindsay, all Republicans.

Eckels said he has "a lot of concerns" about tolling free lanes. County Commissioner Jerry Eversole blamed TxDOT for much of the confusion sparked by the issue but said he would withhold judgment until he sees a definite proposal.

Williamson - his arrival delayed 35 minutes by traffic - said he sympathized with the concerns raised but predicted that "in your lifetime most existing roads will have tolls."

He said fuel taxes now cover just 49 cents of each dollar needed for road projects.

Fellow transportation Commissioner Robert Nichols said raising the tax by 5 cents would almost pay for one major freeway interchange, "and we have 57 interchanges waiting to be built."

"The only ways we know how," he said, "are to borrow against future tolls or charge tolls."