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[bluecountry]

So is it going to be a median separated 1 lane road in each direction with grade separated intersections?

No, it's a two-lane road. One 12 foot lane in each direction with 10 foot right paved shoulders. Effectively a super-2. The center line will likely be broken for a lot of the length to allow passing, like any other two-lane rural road.

OK so one lane each direction, shoulder, and a center lane for passing.
What about intersections?

[sprjus4]

^

No center lane, only two lanes total.

Intersecting roads will have overpasses and ramps. It’s a freeway, with only one roadway being built now. In the future, a second roadway will be built to create a full 4 lane freeway design.

[MaxConcrete]

The quarterly project update report is posted online for Thursday's TxDOT commission meeting.

https://ftp.txdot.gov/pub/txdot/commission/2021/0225/10c3.pdf

Section 1 of the project (which is the tolled section) is on schedule for full opening by March 15, 2021. Section 2 completion is delayed 8 months to June 2023, but the delay will allow the inclusion of upgrades, including three grade separations and longer passing lanes.

Section 1A opened to traffic ahead of schedule on August 8, 2020 and began toll collection ahead
of schedule in December 2020. Section 1B is anticipated to open to traffic on schedule no later
than March 15, 2021. Segment 2 is scheduled to be open to traffic on schedule on or before June
5, 2023.

The original Segment 2 Substantial Completion (SC) date of October 8, 2022 was
extended due to added work related to additional requirements needed to comply with a United
States Corps of Engineers (USACE) Section 404 permit. This work included: adding grade
separations at County Road (CR) 304, FM 1748, and CR 306; adding one passing lane in each
direction between Pinebrook and CR 304 with 4 ft wide shoulders including bridge crossings in
lieu of culverts at Station 2130+00 and 2137+00 to avoid impacts to the Waters of the United
States (WOTUS); and increasing the mainlane shoulder widths along SH 249 from 8‐ft to 10‐ft.
See "Current Project Schedule".

The estimated total cost to develop the Project is $850.8M (Segment 1 - $534.7M; Segment 2 -
$316.1M) as of November 30, 2020. This estimated cost includes: the negotiated DBA price for
design, construction, and all other services required to deliver the Project per the DBA; utility
relocation; Right‐of‐Way (ROW) costs to acquire necessary property to design, construct, and
maintain the Project; tolling equipment and system integration; environmental mitigation;
TxDOT administration costs; and reasonable Project contingency.

[MaxConcrete]

On December 16, bids were opened for the direct connector ramps at SH 249 (Tomball Tollway) and the Grand Parkway.The four connectors on the south side are included.
The winning bidder was (no surprise) Williams Brothers Construction, which left a lot of money on the table with their bid of $92.05 million.

Just to clarify, this is on the far southern end of the Tomball Tollway and is not part of the extension projects currently under construction.

Friday's Harris County Commissioner's Court meeting had an agenda item for hiring a consultant to design two direct connect ramps at the SH-249/SH-99 interchange. Four ramps are under construction as mentioned in the quote above and work is proceeding quickly. I'm assuming this task is for new ramps and not additional design work for the ramps already under construction. There is no mention of these ramps on the project information page https://www.hctra.org/Tomball_Tollway_at_SH_99_Interchange

https://harriscountytx.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4805478&GUID=5AEA6536-471D-4771-B7A6-4C4D6219FD19

The agenda item has no mention of which ramps are included in this new design task. I'm thinking it's either the two left-turn movements (EB-NB and SB-EB) or the connections on the northeast side (SB-EB and WB-NB).

If this is in fact for new ramps (not already under construction), this is a very favorable development because my perception is that the majority on Commissioner's Court and particularly Judge Hidalgo want to shut down HCTRA's toll road expansion program after current obligations are completed, and probably cancel the long-planned Hardy Toll Road downtown extension. This would be the first new work planned since the Democrats took control in 2019.

[MaxConcrete]

Section 1B, 8 miles from FM 1488 to FM1174, opened this past Friday.

Eight more miles of the Texas 249 tollway opened Friday, Texas Department of Transportation officials said. Tolling went into effect immediately along the new segment from FM 1488 in Magnolia to FM 1774 in Todd Mission. The segment opening follows the August debut of the portion to the south from Pinehurst to Magnolia in Montgomery County, north of Tomball.

Use of the new segment will cost automobile drivers $2.28 if they have a tag for the vehicle such as a TxTag or EZ Tag, and $3.42 for pay-by-mail travelers. From Houston, the total cost for drivers would be $6.81 for a trip along all of the tolled portions, crossing sections controlled by TxDOT, Montgomery County Toll Road Authority and Harris County Toll Road Authority.

[Ketchup99]

This looks great. SH 105, I assume, will then ultimately be twinned from Stoneham to Navasota?

[sprjus4]

The northern portion of the toll road is only being built with 2 lanes, so I would assume no for now.

[Stephane Dumas]

Not related directly to the toll extension, but Google streetview had posted shots taken last April showing the erection of the pylons who'll support the direct ramps with TX-99.
https://goo.gl/maps/9iRALqpaZEwMhQig6

[armadillo speedbump]

Google Earth is updated to Sept 2022 east of Navasota and shows the aggy Tollway almost finished.  Bridges are all in.

Edit:  I guess that's because it is going to open this weekend.  Looks like the segment from 105 to 1774 will be free, the toll portion starting in Montgomery County:

https://www.kbtx.com/2022/10/27/state-highway-249-open-by-weekend/

[ski-man]

Google Earth is updated to Sept 2022 east of Navasota and shows the aggy Tollway almost finished.  Bridges are all in.

Edit:  I guess that's because it is going to open this weekend.  Looks like the segment from 105 to 1774 will be free, the toll portion starting in Montgomery County:

https://www.kbtx.com/2022/10/27/state-highway-249-open-by-weekend/

It's the Aggie Tollway. Guess you learned to spell at that school in Austin. Typical.

[TXtoNJ]

Google Earth is updated to Sept 2022 east of Navasota and shows the aggy Tollway almost finished.  Bridges are all in.

Edit:  I guess that's because it is going to open this weekend.  Looks like the segment from 105 to 1774 will be free, the toll portion starting in Montgomery County:

https://www.kbtx.com/2022/10/27/state-highway-249-open-by-weekend/

It's the Aggie Tollway. Guess you learned to spell at that school in Austin. Typical.

Sure. But this response is very aggy

[MaxConcrete]

I drove to the new segment today to inspect it. There is one passing lane section, approximately in the middle. The rest is two lanes (one each way) with a wide median on both sides. There are no intersecting roads, but I noticed two instances of property access from the road (and there may have been more).

The highway is not obviously designed for the addition of two more lanes in the future. I expected the two-lane facility to have a clear right-of-way on one side, for the addition of two more lanes. Examples are the Chisholm Trail Parkway in Tarrant county and SH 49 on the west side of Tyler. But there is no obvious provision for two more lanes. The right-of-way is wide enough for two more lanes, but it appears to be unexpectedly narrow in many places, which could preclude the addition of frontage roads. So it makes me wonder about the long term plan.

On a separate subject for SH 249, three of the four connection ramps at SH 249 and SH 99 are now open. Only the NB-WB ramp remains under construction, and it is nearing completion.

[Bobby5280]

With the way the exit ramps are designed on the Aggie Tollway it shouldn't be difficult to add in a second pair of lanes in the future.

Out of limited access Super 2 roads in Texas I think the Aggie Tollway has an excellent chance of being expanded into a divided 4-lane facility within the not so distant future. If the Greater Houston metro continues growing like it has for the past 30 years an eventual expansion of the Aggie Tollway would be a foregone conclusion.

Another question is if/when TX DOT will bridge the non-freeway gap between the end of the Aggie Tollway and the South end of the TX-6 freeway in Navasota. Calling that new toll road the "Aggie Tollway" obviously implies a high speed connection direct to College Station. Stopping 6 miles East of Navasota on TX-105 doesn't quite get that job done.

[ski-man]

Google Earth is updated to Sept 2022 east of Navasota and shows the aggy Tollway almost finished.  Bridges are all in.

Edit:  I guess that's because it is going to open this weekend.  Looks like the segment from 105 to 1774 will be free, the toll portion starting in Montgomery County:

https://www.kbtx.com/2022/10/27/state-highway-249-open-by-weekend/

It's the Aggie Tollway. Guess you learned to spell at that school in Austin. Typical.

Sure. But this response is very aggy

Guess as long as you feel good about yourself.