Environment Texas Blog

The Texas Department of Transportation is working hard to quickly push through approval for Segment E of the proposed Grand Parkway.  This stretch of highway will supposedly alleviate traffic on US 290 by linking US 290 and US 10, allowing for an alternative route to Houston via the Katy Freeway. In its construction, Segment E will use up a proposed $181 million of the stimulus money given to Houston for roadways and transportation. There has been substantial opposition to this road, mostly from citizens who are opposed to the fact that the highway will be a toll road; people are upset their tax dollars are being used to facilitate “double taxation.” However, this is not the most important issue concerning this highway.

What people should be concerned about the fact that Segment E will cut through the Katy Prairie, a historical stretch of pasture and prairie that becomes the winter home of millions of migratory birds every year. The proposed road will run 15 miles through the prairie, disrupting 700 acres of the land and the wildlife that reside there. People should be outraged at this.

The Katy Prairie has been around for more than two hundred years, providing a home for most of the wildlife around the Houston area. It is an ecological haven, a once famous area that has been for the most part, destroyed, and will be even more so by this road. And for what? The Grand Parkway will be nothing more than a 4^th loop around the Houston metropolitan area; it will not do much to alleviate the so much as to encourage the expansion and development of suburban subdivisions outside the metropolitan area, which is why contractors are so keen to accelerate the construction of this segment of the road.

The building of a road through the prairie could have dire ramifications for the wildlife, such as severe pollution from car emissions, introduction of invasive non-native species, and decrease the genetic variation of the existing populations through the corridor effect. There are other problems to consider as well. The Katy Prairie is an ecological haven but more than that, it offers Houston residents a place for outdoor recreational activities and has important agricultural and farming uses. Do we really want to use so much of our state’s stimulus funds, which can be used to improve existing roads and public transportation around Houston, for such a shortsighted, destructive project that benefits nobody but developers and contractors? The road has been dubbed the “Road to Nowhere,” and has been named one of the worst proposed roads in the nation by the Infrastructurist, for it’s shortsightedness and encouragement of urban sprawl.

So whether the objections are environmental, infrastructural, or just common sense, it’s clear that building Segment E of the Grand Parkway is nothing more than simply a bad idea.