Exxon SH99 segment will be open by 2015

Construction begins in 2013

David Crossley, Jun 13, 11.

Details are emerging about the Exxon Mobil announcement that it will move most of its Houston employees out of the City of Houston and into a new sub-urban “campus” south of The Woodlands in unincorporated Harris County. The Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff published a wrap-up that includes this:

Exxon Mobil will be locating in time to take advantage of a 12.1-mile stretch of the Grand Parkway expected to open by 2015, according to David Gornet, executive director of the Grand Parkway Association.

Federal agencies have given environmental clearance for the segment and the Texas Department of Transportation is mapping rights of way and will start acquiring it later this year, he said.

Gornet said he expects construction to start in 2013 on the part of the parkway between Texas 249 and Interstate 45.

“Exxon is bringing in people from all over the Houston region,” he said. “This will help them.”

The parkway segment does not have funding allocated to it yet, said Kelli Petras, a spokeswoman for TxDOT. The state agency has, however, issued requests for proposals on how to develop that part of the Grand Parkway, she said.

Before and After picture of the apparent Exxon Mobil site, showing the forest in January and the clearcut in March, first mentioned on Swamplot: