$1.8 Billion for a 4th Houston Loop

Proposal and savings
Cancel the Grand Parkway project. Estimated total project cost is $2 billion — 90 percent federally funded.

Background
The Grand Parkway, Houston’s fourth outer freeway loop, would have a circumference of 177 miles and would be extremely distant from the city’s center. Recently proposed to be part of the National Highway System, the proposed Parkway is also supported by a group of private real estate interests. This redundant highway would promote sprawl development around Houston, cost federal taxpayers $1.8 billion, and slice through important wildlife habitat.

Status
The entire highway project is divided into eight parts, which means that funding statistics and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire project will not be released. The EIS for the eastern segment (Segment I) was released in the summer of 1997. The Segment C (through bottomland wetlands and floodplain) EIS is expected to be completed in early 1999.

Problems with the project

Taxpayer Concerns
The highway is redundant. Houston already has two freeway loops and a third, almost-complete loop. In some sections the proposed fourth outer freeway loop would come within six miles of the third outer loop.

Local Community Concerns
Citizens of the rural areas that would be urbanized by the Parkway are concerned they will lose their rural quality of life. Additionally, rural infrastructure may not be adequate to meet the new urban demands. The next proposed segment (I) would traverse near rural Beach City, located east of Houston.

According to the Mayor of Beach City, the Parkway will continue the trend of sprawl away from the inner city. The project will thus take money away from the urban area and continue to pull the city’s residents and tax and job base into the suburbs.

Environmental Concerns
The proposed project would slice through wildlife habitat in Lake Houston State Park, Brazos Bend State Park, and the bird-rich Katy Prairie, as well as destroy some of the last wetlands and bottomland hardwoods near Houston.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service states that the Grand Parkway will result in "tremendous secondary impacts through induced commercial and residential development." Major malls, two huge landfills, and numerous planned communities have been announced along the planned route.

The Houston area is already a carbon monoxide/ozone non-attainment area and its poor air quality scores nearly rival those of Los Angeles. The Grand Parkway would only aggravate this problem.

Contacts
Houston Sierra Club, (713) 666-7494, http://lonestar.sierraclub.org/houston ; Jim Standridge, Mayor of Beach City, (281) 383-3180.