The efforts of the Highway 36A Coalition have an impact well beyond Brazoria, Fort Bend and Waller counties, which makes it important for the coalition to partner with other regions of the state as our mobility corridor becomes reality, said two mobility and urban planners, Michael Parks and Dan Rudge, when they spoke at the November 14th luncheon of the Highway 36A Coalition at Marriott Energy Corridor.

Parks is the executive director of the Brazos Valley Council of Governments, while Rudge is the executive director of the Bryan College Station Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Rudge stated that he has been working for several years to plan and advocate for a broad statewide solution to move the expected increased volumes of freight made necessary by Port Freeport’s expansion and to serve other major needs such as hurricane evacuation from the coast.

The port is in the midst of a Channel Harbor Improvement project that will transform it into the deepest port on the Texas Gulf Coast, capable of handling freight container ships transiting the Panama Canal. To facilitate that, Rudge said, he has been working on a proposed corridor dubbed the Texas Triangle Parkway, a corridor that would tie together Port Freeport to the Fort Worth area Alliance Railyard. The 36A Coalition’s efforts to develop a corridor from Port Freeport to SH 290 could figure into that plan.

He first started work on the concept, he said, some years ago at the invitation of the Houston and Waco MPOs; both have since retired or taken other positions, but he has continued to push the vision forward.

“We are trying to develop a third alternative for moving people and goods. We are trying to connect the Port Freeport deepwater port to the Alliance Railyard in Fort Worth.”

The goal is to avoid as much as possible the creation of new roadways.

“We are looking to connect areas of Texas that are currently underserved using the existing interstate and freeway system. And we are finding according to the state demographers office that a lot of the growth that is occurring in the state of Texas is within and along the edge of the Texas Triangle (the triangle envisioned by connecting three major metro areas: Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, and Houston.)

The outer edges of the triangle has interstate highways – the center does not, Rudge said. The goal is to create an efficient corridor to move expanded freight traffic from Port Freeport throughout the country via the Fort Worth Alliance Railyard.

“They (Alliance) have a railyard and airport. This is a big deal. We thought, wouldn’t it be a good idea to connect Port Freeport to the Alliance Railyard to better move freight through the state of Texas.” Studies he has undertaken with the Texas Transportation Institute have indicated some hurdles, including growing congestion along I-35 and I-45, and the rapid development in Fort Bend County that is quickly eliminating potential avenues for a corridor.

However, Rudge and Parks want to continue dialogue with Highway 36A Coalition and other regional MPOs to bring the vision to fruition.

“I’m doing my part to talk with my counterparts to help them understand this is bigger than all of us,” Parks said. “We want everybody’s opinion to be heard. … Growth is coming, whether we like it or not. We can either prosper by it, or stick our heads in the sand and get run over by it. Working together I think we will have a better chance at getting this completed.”

A PDF of the Freeport to Fort Worth study by the Texas Transportation Institute for the Bryan College Station MPO is available at files.constantcontact.com/487d1f9c001/a3239c36-dab1-4d37-a903-55babf210af1.pdf.

TxDOT is in the midst of a study known as an Environmental Impact Statement to identify potential corridors for a regional transportation infrastructure as described by 36A's mission. A map of the study area is available at https://files.constantcontact.com/487d1f9c001/784a7a5a-7255-4976-ac6f-8c0b73456240.pdf

The Highway 36A Coalition’s mission is to advocate for the development of a regional transportation infrastructure from the Brazosport area to Hempstead and beyond, which will provide for improved hurricane evacuation, more efficient mobility and economic development for the region and the state.