Harris County votes to send $53 million to trails project.
“Tollways to Trailways” will need close coordination with partners, meaningful engagement with the community, and a consistent process to develop and reflect on investments.
Tollways to Trailways:
Harris county released a 126 page document that outlines their new “tollways to trailways” plan and it is substantial.
In their plan, Harris County stated: “In 2021, the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) embraced a new mission and vision that moved away from a focus on vehicles only and towards being a County-wide partner in providing mobility options for all.”
Tollways to Trailways presents a plan to build over 236 miles of infrastructure across Harris county. This vision is shown on the map below.
Harris county claims that by categorizing projects they enable the ranking and prioritization of like-projects along with feasibility analysis and cost estimates. After scoring projects through an evaluation matrix, projects were placed into three categories:
Network Spine: Network Spines are projects that traverse multiple communities, are a length of at least 5 miles, and provide an opportunity to connect other trails or multimodal facilities.
Community Connector: Community Connectors are projects that provide access to parks, transit, schools, neighborhoods, or other destinations. These projects may be shorter and likely connect to a Network Spine or other multimodal facility within Harris County.
Partnership Project: Some projects evaluated were a part of another agency’s plan or may be most appropriate for an entity other than HCTRA to lead in the project development, design, and construction. This could be due to current coordination efforts, grant funding, or feasibility. Additional coordination is needed to move the project forward. Assistance could be through financial, in-kind, or other agency support. These projects will link to the entire multimodal network.
For more information on their new “tollways to trailways” plan, you can click here.