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Issues >
Transportation
> Printer Version $3.6 billion
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. The Parkway was recently proposed to be part
of the National Highway System and is supported by a group of
private real estate interests. This redundant highway would promote
sprawl development around Houston, cost federal taxpayers $4
billion and slice through important wildlife habitat. Current Status The
project is split up into eight parts. Consequently, funding statistics
and an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the entire project
will not be performed. 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 summer 2002. The three draft EISs on segments E, F, G - through
the bird-rich Katy Prairie - are expected in summer 2002. The highway is redundant. Houston already has two freeway loops and a road that is an almost complete third loop. In some sections the proposed fourth outer freeway loop would come within six miles of the third outer loop. Citizens of the rural areas that would be urbanized by the Parkway are concerned that 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 and the Houston Sierra Club, the Parkway will continue the trend of sprawl away from the inner city. The project would damage
recent efforts to re-vitalize downtown Houston by pulling the city's residents, tax
base and job base into the suburbs, according to the Mayor of
Beach City and the Houston Sierra Club. Project Hurts the Environment The Parkway would slice through wildlife habitat in Lake Houston State Park, Brazos Bend State Park, and the bird-rich Katy Prairie, and 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 in the last year along the planned route. These developments will contribute to sprawl, air and water pollution, and wildlife habitat loss. The Houston area is already a highly polluted region, classified as an ozone non-attainment area. It has the highest number of ozone exceedence days for the most recent three-year period. The Grand Parkway would only aggravate this problem. Instead
of easing traffic problems, the loop will make them worse by
adding commuters to the already strained main arteries into Houston.
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