February 19, 2014

Work will get underway over the coming year on more than $250 million in work that will convert five miles of the I-69 Southwest Freeway at Rosenberg to an expansive superhighway. 

This section of highway was added to the Interstate Highway System as I-69 in February 2013 but major upgrades are needed to meet traffic demand.

Over the past decade reconstruction and widening of the Southwest Freeway has progressed incrementally into Fort Bend County.  The 16-lane urban section, including managed HOV lanes, now extends through Stafford, Sugar Land and the Greatwood area to just past the SH 99 Grand Parkway.

In January the Texas Transportation Commission awarded a $136 million construction contract to Williams Brothers Construction to upgrade 2.6 miles of I-69 in Rosenberg between SH 36 and FM 2759.  The existing pavement will be replaced and widened to 6 lanes with a grassy median.  It will also include continuous 2-lane frontage roads and overpasses will be rebuilt as needed.  The overall project cost is estimated at $162 million.

SUPER SLAB EXTENSION

Bids are expected to be taken in late 2014 on reconstruction of 2.6 miles of I-69/US 59 from the Grand Parkway west past Williams Way and then to a point near Rabbs Bayou on the east side of Rosenberg.  That section will look like the section of I-69 that runs through Sugar Land with four freeway lanes and one HOV lane in each direction plus continuous 3-lane frontage roads.  The current engineer’s estimate for this project is a total of $95 million.

TxDOT conducted and environmental review process over the past several years covering the entire 11.5 miles of the I-69 route from SH 99 Grand Parkway southwest to Spur 10 which runs around the west side of Rosenberg and is being improved.

Fort Bend County includes a total of 31.8 miles of the I-69 route with 19.8 miles of the total already carrying the I-69 shield.   It is 12 miles from the Wharton County Line to the start of I-69 in Rosenberg.  The KCS Railroad runs parallel to most of this part of the highway right-of-way.  In this section TxDOT has already completed major grade separation and frontage road projects at Kendleton, SH 360, Beasley and Spur 10.