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Recent crazy Woodlands traffic

2,448 Views | 35 Replies | Last: 9 yr ago by CrossBowAg99
newhowdyag2004
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I work off Sawdust and getting TO 45 at 5pm was never too bad (10-15 mins), but the last few months it can take up to 45 mins to travel the 3-4 miles. It appears all roads traveling East towards 45 have become congested. Have that many business opened in The Woodlands where people work there and commute south?
Aggiemike96
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AG
OTL? WGAF!
aggiedent
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Get use to it.........it's only going to get a lot worse.
DRE06
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AG
My guess would be to get used to it.

Can't imagine how bad everything will be once Exxon is 100% up and running. Not to mentions the numerous other commercial & huge residential projects going on.

Going to be a never ending traffic nightmare.
aggiedent
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But wait.........all our politicians are telling us how great massive growth is. We should be thrilled with a 45 min commute to go 5 miles. Jazzed that acres of concrete are replacing trees in a place called The Woodlands. Be happy!!
TXTransplant
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There are more people, but almost every major road in The Woodlands has construction. Woodlands Pkwy, Research Forest, and Grogan's Mill are all under significant construction (ie, long-term lane closures) and have been for at least a year, in some cases longer (although, the work on Woodlands Pkwy has temporarily been suspended). Then there is the cluster at 45 and 242. Work will start on Kuykendahl in the near future to widen the bridge to four lanes (to improve access to the Grand Pkwy). Couple that with the jacked up interchange at Woodlands Pkwy and 45 and you have a recipe for disaster. It's not unusual for a wreck on 45 to back up traffic on Woodlands Pkwy to the intersection with Grogan's Mill. The traffic has also been really bad on the weekends 45 has been closed...all of the traffic from 45 gets funneled to Woodlands Pkwy and then Gosling or Kuykendahl to travel north/south.

You may also be experiencing some issues due to construction on Spring Stuebner, too. Spring Stuebner is the first road south of Woodlands Pkwy that has direct access to 45. And it's been closed in various places over at least the past year or so because it's being widened to 4 lanes.

There just aren't enough functional roads for the amount of traffic/people.
The Wonderer
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AG
quote:
There are more people, but almost every major road in The Woodlands has construction. Woodlands Pkwy, Research Forest, and Grogan's Mill are all under significant construction (ie, long-term lane closures) and have been for at least a year, in some cases longer (although, the work on Woodlands Pkwy has temporarily been suspended). Then there is the cluster at 45 and 242. Work will start on Kuykendahl in the near future to widen the bridge to four lanes (to improve access to the Grand Pkwy). Couple that with the jacked up interchange at Woodlands Pkwy and 45 and you have a recipe for disaster. It's not unusual for a wreck on 45 to back up traffic on Woodlands Pkwy to the intersection with Grogan's Mill. The traffic has also been really bad on the weekends 45 has been closed...all of the traffic from 45 gets funneled to Woodlands Pkwy and then Gosling or Kuykendahl to travel north/south.

You may also be experiencing some issues due to construction on Spring Stuebner, too. Spring Stuebner is the first road south of Woodlands Pkwy that has direct access to 45. And it's been closed in various places over at least the past year or so because it's being widened to 4 lanes.

There just aren't enough functional roads for the amount of traffic/people.
This.
LostInLA07
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Don't worry they have a plan to add bike lanes so it'll all be ok
CrossBowAg99
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Screw additional transportation funding. Let's just all sit in traffic!
TXTransplant
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The work being done is somewhat value-added. Woodlands Pkwy is much better going east (except for the fact that the bridge now floods every time it rains), until you start to approach 45. But I really wish westbound WP had been finished first because where Grogan's Mill merges onto the Pkwy is the worst bottleneck. Who knows when that will ever be complete, though, because the contractor was fired and the bid process to find a new one has not even really started.

The improvements at 242 will be great (when complete), and they recently lengthened some turn lanes on Woodlands Pkwy and Kuykendahl so the cars waiting to turn left wouldn't back up into through traffic. That project was done within a few weeks and has helped a lot. Widening Kuykendahl into Harris Co. will also be a huge improvement, but there are other issues on Kuykendahl south of the bridge.

All of this work just seems like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. The two biggest issues, as I see them, are the interchange at Woodlands Pkwy and 45 and the fact that there is no east-west route to 45 between Woodlands Pkwy and Spring-Stuebner. The former I know is up for discussion because the Oak Ridge area has been having open meetings about it, but I don't think there is any plan. The latter seems hopeless...between the Mitchell Nature Preserve and the Grogan's Mill development, I don't think another east-west route would be feasible. The most logical thing to do would be to extend West Rayford to meet up with the intersection of Glen Lock and Sawdust...but that would go right through a neighborhood...albeit, probably the least desirable/most sketchy neighborhood in The Woodlands.
aTm2004
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Remember, you pay The Woodlands premium to sit in that traffic.
newhowdyag2004
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I live in Conroe to avoid The Woodlands premium! I moved there a few months ago and can't imagine how much worse the commute back to Humble where I moved from would be.
Bassmaster
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It has sucked every since they started the grand parkway construction. It has also gotten worse since Anadarko opened its new tower and will get even worse as ExxonMobil opens up. It takes me a good 20-30 minutes to get from my office near the mall to Hardy on many days. About 3 years ago, it would take about 5 minutes.
CrossBowAg99
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Montgomery County will be proposing a road bond package in the near future. Everyone that votes against prop 1 should also remember to vote against these road bonds.
Dill-Ag13
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quote:
Don't worry they have a plan to add bike lanes so it'll all be ok
Ah yes, I'd love to commute 8 miles down the Woodlands Autobahn on my bike...
TXTransplant
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quote:
Ah yes, I'd love to commute 8 miles down the Woodlands Autobahn on my bike...


Hah! I'd taken to calling it Woodlands Speedway, but I like Woodlands Autobahn better! If it's not bumper to bumper at 20 mph, everyone is driving 65-70. There is rarely any speed in between.
Dill-Ag13
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Correct. I'm part of the 60mph crowd for sure...
Texas A&M
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It could be worse for y'all... we live over off of Riley Fuzzel (for those not familiar...it is East of Old Town Spring). With the out of control growth and the GP construction, that area is huge cluster*&$^. It will be much nicer when the GP is done, but until then it will be painful.

Also, Exxon has already started moving people in. I think that they already have 2-3K there.
The Wonderer
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quote:
It could be worse for y'all... we live over off of Riley Fuzzel (for those not familiar...it is East of Old Town Spring). With the out of control growth and the GP construction, that area is huge cluster*&$^. It will be much nicer when the GP is done, but until then it will be painful.

Also, Exxon has already started moving people in. I think that they already have 2-3K there.
Consensus is that this area is the next HUGE boom area. Hopefully they are smart enough to get the infrastructure in place first. LOL, who are we kidding? They aren't that smart...
Worm01
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Correct, Exxon has about 2500 people in the new campus already. Starting in the Spring, they will begin moving employees in at a rate of 500 people/week. That's right, 500 per week.

The good part is they have sliding start times, so it's not like everyone has to be there at 8am. Still, good luck with all that.
TXTransplant
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If anyone is curious, this is the link to the website for the Woodlands area traffic plans.

http://montgomerycountymobility.com/

There is a public meeting on November 5.

This is a link to a PDF from Oak Ridge North that discusses the traffic issues/proposed plan in that area (including the Woodlands Pkwy/45 interchange). Skip to Chapter 5 for relevant information.

http://www.oakridgenorth.com/DocumentCenter/View/797

Scientific
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As long as more and more people come in droves, what real solution for any of the traffic is there?
The Wonderer
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quote:
As long as more and more people come in droves, what real solution for any of the traffic is there?
Leave earlier/later than rush hour.

telecommute.
CrossBowAg99
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It is may not get better, but you can hopefully keep it from getting worse
LostInLA07
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Obviously the answer is to have the water taxi extend into spring and willow creeks. Maybe even a high speed water taxi that goes along gosling, kuykendahl, research, lake woodlands and the autobahn.
Texas A&M
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Wait till Costco opens up next month at 242/I45. That will definitely help matters.
TXTransplant
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quote:
Leave earlier/later than rush hour.


This. I drop my child of at before school care at 645 and can make it up Kuykendahl and down Woodlands Parkway (about an 8 mile trip) and be in the parking garage by 7. Some days it's bumper to bumper, but everyone is going 60+. If I leave the office before 5, I can be back to my son's school in about 20-25 min. This is assuming no wrecks or closed lanes (whoever was doing the construction on the Parkway bridge had a habit of closing lanes at 4 pm on Friday afternoons...that was ugly). By 510-515, it becomes a 30-40 minute trip, and this lasts until about 6-630. Then everything goes back to normal.

The real challenge is getting back up Kuykendahl and the Parkway and across 45 to Robinson Rd in time for a 515 Taekwondo class.

With the recent lane closures on 45 during the weekend, we try not to leave the house at all. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to get up to Camp Strake tomorrow, since 2 northbound lanes on 45 are going to be closed.
Furlock Bones
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quote:
Screw additional transportation funding. Let's just all sit in traffic!
i hope you aren't implying that we should be dipping into the rainy day fund.
CrossBowAg99
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AG
quote:
quote:
Screw additional transportation funding. Let's just all sit in traffic!
i hope you aren't implying that we should be dipping into the rainy day fund.
Prop 1 doesn't "dip" into the rainy day fund.

It "diverts" inflows
Furlock Bones
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AG
quote:
quote:
quote:
Screw additional transportation funding. Let's just all sit in traffic!
i hope you aren't implying that we should be dipping into the rainy day fund.
Prop 1 doesn't "dip" into the rainy day fund.

It "diverts" inflows

yea, not no. but hell no.
88jrt06
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AG
quote:
quote:


There just aren't enough functional roads for the amount of traffic/people.
This.

...and there never will be! Period.
ScottBowen
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Here's a question no one has ever been able to answer for me: going each way on 45, the left shoulder is about 1.5 lanes wide. They could easily create a new lane there by just reprinting some lines. Why don't they?
The Wonderer
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quote:
Here's a question no one has ever been able to answer for me: going each way on 45, the left shoulder is about 1.5 lanes wide. They could easily create a new lane there by just reprinting some lines. Why don't they?
Due the number of lanes, a shoulder/escape lane is necessary near the left divider as vehicles experiencing emergencies may not be able to cross over 4 lanes of traffic.
aggivedave16
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Never understood the appeal of the woodlands. Why is the extra 15 miles (vs all other suburbs) so appealing?
CrossBowAg99
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AG
quote:
quote:
Here's a question no one has ever been able to answer for me: going each way on 45, the left shoulder is about 1.5 lanes wide. They could easily create a new lane there by just reprinting some lines. Why don't they?
Due the number of lanes, a shoulder/escape lane is necessary near the left divider as vehicles experiencing emergencies may not be able to cross over 4 lanes of traffic.


Umm, No
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