Houston Regional Group - News

Brandt Mannchen

The Grand Porkway (GP or Parkway) is a proposed 170 mile highway loop around Houston.   Presently, there are two complete loops (Loop 610 and Beltway) and nearly a third loop (Highway 6/1960) that extend around Houston.  The GP will waste between $1.7-4 billion.  The Grand Porkway Association (GPA, a quasi-public Texas Transportation Corporation), the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are the local, state, and federal sponsors/supporters of this road.   The GP is also a potential route for the I-69 NAFTA Highway.

The GP directly impacts the last, best, natural habitats and rural areas left in Houston.  Direct impacts are due to highway construction and indirect impacts are due to stimulation of speculative sprawling development.  Additional air pollution, water pollution, noise, flooding, habitat destruction, and degradation of rural/community lifestyles, ways of life, and cohesion will occur.

The GP will impact Brazos Bend State Park, Big Creek (Fort Bend County), the Columbia Bottomlands (Brazos River), the Katy Prairie, Cypress Creek woodlands, Spring Creek and the West Fork of the San Jacinto River bottomland hardwood forests, Houston State Park, East Galveston Bay wetlands and shoreline, and rural/farmland in Brazoria, Galveston, and Fort Bend, Counties.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Segment C (Brazos Bend State Park) is in April of 2002 and a public hearing will occur in June 2002.  All draft EIS’s may have 90 day public comment periods and will have public hearings.  A draft EIS for Segment E (Katy Prairie) is due in April 2002 and a public hearing may occur in June 2002.  A draft EIS for Segment F1(Rose Hill) is due in June 2002 and a public hearing may occur in August 2002.  A draft EIS for Segment F2 (Tomball) is due in August 2002 and a public hearing may occur in October 2002.  A draft EIS for Segment G (Spring Creek and West Fork of the San Jacinto River) is due in October 2002 and a public haring may occur in December 2002.  These dates are tentative and subject to change.   Check the GPA website at www.grandpky.com, call the GPA at 713-965-0871, or fax them at 713-993-0106 and ask for an update.

What you can do!

1) Write your elected officials (city council members, county commissioners, state representative and senator, U.S. Representative and Senators) and tell them why you oppose the GP and ask them to publicly oppose the GP.

2) Write the GPA and request your notification about the availability and dates for the public hearings for each EIS.  Write David Gornet, Executive Director, GPA, 4544 Post Oak Place, Suite 222, Houston, Texas 77027.

3) Attend the public hearings, oppose the GP, and support others who speak in opposition.

4) Submit EIS written comments by the comment deadlines.

5) Get your organization to submit comments opposing the GP.

6) Get friends, family, and others to voice their opposition to the GP.

For more information contact Brandt Mannchen at H713-664-5962 or W713-640-4313.

February 2002

Last updated:  10/02/2005.   Content © 1999-2001 by the Sierra Club.