Storey recommends no stimulus money for Parkway

Permits might never be issued

David Crossley, Oct 09, 09.

UPDATE (10/12/09 11:45 PM): The Houston Chronicle’s Lisa Falkenberg says “Grand Parkway’s ‘E’ never was ‘shovel-ready.’” She concludes that “maybe this is the wake-up call environmentalists and other opponents of this project have been waiting for. Maybe it will cause county officials to step back, reassess priorities and realize the costs of this project are greater than any projected benefits,” but notes that Harris County Judge Emmett believes that “something has to be built, and I think it will be.” Emmett also told Falkenberg that he has not read the comments by a federal and a state agency on the wetlands permit application for the proposed Grand Parkway Segment E.

UPDATE (10/12/09 9:11 PM): Houston Tomorrow’s David Crossley, in his Houston Chronicle blog on The List, says the Grand Parkway is out of sync with community priorities and would cause immense damage to six ecosystems in the richest ecoregion in North America.

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The Houston Chronicle reports that Art Storey, who heads Harris County’s Public Infrastructure Department, will “request that $181 million in federal stimulus funding for portions of the county’s controversial Grand Parkway tollroad project be shifted to other projects, citing delays in obtaining federal permits that ‘might never be issued’.“

Robin Holzer, chair of the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition, has posted Storey’s letter at the CTC website. Storey writes:

Staff and consultants have worked diligently and successfully to be on schedule to meet the deadlines to enable Segment E construction to qualify for and receive the stimulus funding, but the federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot be completely processed by the mid-February date. In fact, because of conflicts over environmental impacts and mitigation, that permit might never be issued.

Because of ongoing permit difficulties and the loss of the ARRA [stimulus] funding, it is further recommended that Harris County neither schedule nor fund the construction phase of this project until a program is developed that considers other segments of SH 99 [the Grand Parkway] in Harris County, Segments F1 and F2, and reviews overall funding priorities and constraints for HCTRA’s [the Harris County Toll Road Authority’s] list of proposed projects.
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With your approval, right-of-way acquisition will stop after transactions already begun have been completed with no further spending or project adjustments, and engineering efforts will cease upon completion of plans and specifications, including agency approvals. The acquired right-of-way and approved plans would be ready for use by HCTRA, by TxDOT, or by others if/when the project moves forward, and HCTRA would negotiate compensation for their transfer at that time.

Is this the reason permits won’t be issued?

Wrap-up of recent Grand Parkway stories