Feds issue permit allowing SH 99 construction to begin

Corps approves wetlands plan

David Crossley, Jul 05, 11.

The Houston Chronicle says “The last remaining obstacle to construction of [State Highway 99] Segment E, which will traverse the Katy Prairie between US 290 and Interstate 10, was cleared this week when the US Army Corps of Engineers issued a wetlands permit, said David Gornet, executive director of the Grand Parkway Association.”

Construction contracts for this segment are to be let this month, The Chronicle says.

[Note: Brandt Mannchen of the Sierra Club sent out a reminder that the Sierra Club still has an active lawsuit against FHWA about the road that is scheduled to be argued before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in August or September]

The Chroniclel story also explores TxDOT’s desire to use some sort of private money to build the road:

State officials are soliciting ideas from private companies to build and operate a large section of the Grand Parkway, a long-planned Houston-area outer loop that has drawn criticism from environmentalists and urban planners.

[snip]

The Texas Department of Transportation, which has responsibility for the parkway in Harris, Montgomery and Chambers Counties, is moving toward use of a public-private partnership to get faster funding for the multibillion-dollar, 184-mile project.

The state made a similar but ill-fated arrangement with Cintra, S.A., based in Madrid, Spain, to build and operate a segment of the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.

The plan triggered a backlash from environmentalists and property rights activists, and TxDOT abandoned the corridor as a single-project concept in 2009. Cintra has contracts for other Texas road projects.

Concerns about public-private partnerships for toll-road projects also led the Legislature in 2007 to enact a moratorium that took effect for most projects Aug. 31, 2009.

The Grand Parkway was one of eight projects exempted from the moratorium until Aug. 31, 2011.

This spring, the Legislature renewed the public-private option for building the Grand Parkway when it passed a bill that extended TxDOT through 2015. An amendment to the bill authorized public-private partnerships to develop the Grand Parkway, U.S. 249, U.S. 290 and Texas 288 in the Houston area as well as three Dallas-area projects.

TxDot issued a Request for Information June 10 regarding development of the Grand Parkway and Interstate 35-E in Dallas. Grand Parkway responses are due Wednesday.

Agency spokeswoman Kelli Petras said TxDOT is open to any idea but is leaning toward a public-private deal, also known as a P3 agreement, because of the state’s budget woes.

“An RFI is searching for any method that we could (use to) build the road,” Petras said. “Obviously, with funding limited, it is assumed that a P3 model will be the one selected.”