The Sierra Club needs your help to protect trail users (hikers, bikers, horseback riders, and motorized riders) and wildlife from more traffic traveling at higher speeds in Sam Houston National Forest (SHNF).
SHNF is the largest public land unit in the Houston Area. 100,000’s of people visit SHNF each year. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) proposes widening FM 1375 in Sam Houston National Forest (SHNF), from FM 149 to the Walker County Line, in Montgomery County, Texas. This proposal would:
a. Widen existing travel lanes from 10 feet to 12 feet for 6 miles
b. Add 5-foot-wide outside shoulders
c. Replace a bridge over Caney Creek
d. Replace a bridge-class culvert over Green Branch
e. Cut down 5.4 acres of trees
f. Destroy/degrade wetlands/floodplains.
Submit comments (in your own words) about the proposed FM 1375 project to TxDOT by March 15, 2024 and state:
1. TxDOT should design/install “speed slowdown areas (SSA)” for the 5 hiking, biking, horseback riding, or motorcycle/ATV trail crossings on FM 1375 in SHNF. These SSA should consist of “warning trail crossing signs” installed before the trail crossing is reached, a reduced speed of 40 MPH sign, large, wide, white/yellow stripes, and a large, blinking yellow light.
2. TxDOT should prepare/implement a “wildlife roadkill reduction plan” to protect wildlife and provide safe crossing areas on FM 1375 to reduce roadkill.
3. TxDOT should prepare an environmental analysis as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and request public review/comment for this analysis.
4. TxDOT should expand the current 10-foot-wide lanes to 11 feet and leave a wider, more open, and more natural right-of-way (ROW), with added 5-foot-wide shoulders for safety.
5. TxDOT should use quiet pavement to reduce noise pollution and light pollution should be reduced to protect “dark skies” by use of mitigation measures.
6. Widening FM 1375 negatively impacts climate change by the creation of a high-speed corridor for vehicles, which causes more development, and increases air pollution. TxDOT should require mitigation to reduce climate change air pollution.
7. Streamside vegetation areas (streams/floodplains/wetlands) should be avoided. Damage/degradation/destruction of streamside areas must be fully mitigated by land acquisition/donation to SHNF.
There will be an in-person open house meeting for the proposed FM 1375 project on Thursday, February 29, 2024, 5-7 pm, at Lone Star Community Center, 2500 Lone Star Parkway, Montgomery, Texas 77356.
Verbal testimony can be given (call 713-913-0873) starting at 5 pm on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, until 11:59 pm on Friday, March 15, 2024.
Send your written email/regular mail comments by March 15, 2024 to:
or
Texas Department of Transportation
Houston District Office
Advanced Project Development Director
P.O. Box 1386
Houston, Texas 77251-1386
For further information contact Brandt Mannchen at 281-570-7212 or brandt_mannchen@comcast.net.