Harris County Toll Road Authority contracted Binkley & Barfield | DCCM as the Program Management Consultant for design and management services of the project’s preliminary and final designs and construction management and inspection services for Phase II. We developed a project feasibility assessment, which resulted in the SH 249 (Tomball Tollway), Phases I and II engineering feasibility report and served as the basis for the final design. In its first day of operation, eager toll users doubled the projected 17,000 daily toll transactions, cutting in half the traffic on the existing frontage road. Funded entirely with toll road revenue paid by the drivers who choose to use the Harris County toll road system, the final construction will extend the toll road into Montgomery County and Grimes County to SH 105, streamlining trips to and from rapidly growing Grimes County and College Station.

Phase I: Spring Cypress Road to FM 2920

This project provided travelers with four main lanes in each direction and was constructed between the existing TxDOT northbound and southbound non-tolled frontage roads. As Project Management Consultant for Harris County Toll Road Authority, Binkley & Barfield | DCCM completed an aggressive 9-month design program for the delivery of plans, specifications, and estimates to Harris County Toll Road Authority to bid and construct this phase. Binkley & Barfield | DCCM provided leadership, schedule adherence, quality assurance, and oversight to 17 consultants, completing the plans, specifications, and estimates for four new toll lanes in each direction along a 6-mile stretch of SH 249, adding five new bridges, retaining walls, and a drainage system that mitigates flooding. Drivers may now bypass seven stoplights while the frontage roads remain toll-free. All milestone submittals were met on time, and the project was constructed in only 16 months and under three construction contracts. Phase I was open to traffic in April 2015 and exceeded all revenue forecasts.

Phase II: FM 2920 to Spring Creek (Harris/Montgomery County line)

Design preparations for Phase II began in October 2014 with design revisions to the TxDOT 2006 SH 249 Schematic. As in Phase I, Binkley & Barfield | DCCM was the Project Management Consultant for the design of four-lane toll lanes in each direction, adding three-lane frontage roads, both north and southbound, five major bridges, flood-mitigating storm sewer detention, a collegiate practice field, and equestrian and bike trials. Services also included computing cut-and-fill quantities for roadway sections, concrete and reinforcement steel quantities for bridge deck pours, and payments for such pours on the contractor’s pay estimate. Binkley & Barfield | DCCM monitored the roadway excavation, subgrade preparation, concrete milling, embankment placement for abutments, installation of drill shaft and foundations, concrete beam placement, asphalt pavement placement, bent footings, column, cap pours, reinforced earth walls, 18- to 36-inch reinforced concrete pipes, and various concrete box culverts. Our team oversaw construction management and inspection services for this project segment. Construction was completed in 2019. 

Phases I and II of the SH 249 (Tomball Tollway) project included environmental investigations and permitting, survey/right-of-way mapping, utility identification and assessment, subsurface utility engineering, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, and detention pond design. Binkley & Barfield | DCCM also provided construction phase services for Phase II and the direct connectors at SH 99 (Grand Parkway).