STATE HAS NEW PREFERRED ROUTE FOR 249 EXTENSION

  

The state has come up with a new preferred route for the 249-expansion project through Grimes County.

After hearing from concerned landowners in late August, the Texas Transportation Commission released a document this month outlining a new route extending from FM 1774 in Todd Mission to state Highway 105 near Stoneham.

The documentation released by the Bryan District of TxDOT shows a review of the SH 249 project area and the associated impacts to property owners with a map and a table outlining the pros and cons for each preferred route.

Grimes County Judge Ben Leman tells the Navasota Examiner that it’s vital “the final route gets identified in a timely manner so the citizens can plan their future accordingly.”

But, Leman went on to say that TxDOT needs to “take the appropriate amount of time needed to analyze every route in order to minimize the impact to homesteads”.

The district conducted public outreach meetings with affected property owners by personal visit, telephone, email or letter to help identify property usage and expectations of proposed routes. Six alternatives were used and included when discussing routes and expectations with the property owners.

Bob Colwell, of TxDOT says they “analyzed a variety of alignment adjustments to the preferred route for Highway-249 after additional meetings with property owners and stakeholders to gather input.

Colwell says that effort, “along with ongoing engineering and environmental considerations, is yielding a final preferred alternative.”

Colwell said a design-build consulting team would be selected by summer to move the project forward.

 

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