How Wide Will Northpark Be When Done?

3/13/25 – Just how wide will Northpark be when construction is complete? After the UnionPacific Railroad finished installing concrete road crossing panels last week we now have a visual cue. It’s going to be WIDE! With a capital W! Approximately three times wider than it currently is. See the pictures below taken this morning.

*Looking E.* *See concrete panels in railroad tracks.*

Northpark will expand from its current four lanes to 10 with two 10-foot-wide sidewalks.

In addition to accommodating extra traffic, one of the main reasons for expanding Northpark is to create an all-weather evacuation route from Kingwood for 78,000 people.

Why So Many Lanes?

The 10 lanes will include:

Six lanes over a bridge that spans the tracks and Loop 494. It has yet to be built. The bridge will carry three lanes in each direction.
Two surface lanes on the north/outbound side of Northpark will let traffic turn left or right onto Loop 494.
Two surface lanes on the south/inbound side of Northpark will let Loop 494 traffic from the north and south turn onto Northpark.
Two sidewalks (one on each side of Northpark) will accommodate both pedestrians and bicyclists.

*Northpark looking W toward 59. Again, concrete panels in UPRR tracks indicate eventual width of traffic corridor.*

Loop 494 Width

Loop 494 will also expand to accommodate more traffic.

*Looking North along Loop 494 at Northpark. The old road will expand to 5 lanes, two in each direction plus one dedicated turn lane from each direction.*

*Looking S at Loop 494 from opposite direction.*

The schematic below shows how the intersection will eventually look.

Elsewhere on Northpark

Between Russell Palmer Road and Loop 494, contractors are making good progress with the drainage that goes under the expanded roadway. On the North/Outbound side, the underground work is almost complete. And this morning, they were stabilizing the road bed.

*Stabilizing road bed on outbound Northpark (north side).*

At this morning’s Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10 Board Meeting, project manager Ralph De Leon stated that contractors would soon bore underneath the railroad tracks. Once they connect the drainage on the east and west sides, they can begin paving. So you should see the pace of progress accelerate soon.

*Spreading more road base and compacting it.*

On the inbound/south side of Northpark, contractors are also making excellent progress with the drainage after resolving more utility conflicts.

*Looking W at inbound side (left). The old concrete has been removed and drainage work is in full swing.*

*Closer shot of new drainage on inbound Northpark.*

Part of Phase II May Be Accelerated

Also at the board meeting this morning, De Leon introduced the idea of moving Phase II stormwater detention work forward. Phase II of Northpark expansion covers the area from Woodland Hills Drive to a block west of the Kingwood Diversion Ditch.

Phase II calls for building a detention basin to compensate for extra runoff caused by the road expansion. Just as the entry ponds at US 59 compensate for much of the extra runoff in Phase I.

De Leon discussed a combination of two types of detention. Together, they could add as much as 100 acre-feet of stormwater detention capacity to the project. They include:

In-line detention within the Diversion Ditch itself, down to the first bend south of Northpark.
A large, regional detention basin near where the Diversion Ditch and Bens Branch come together.

He stated that, right now, much of the water coming down Bens Branch shoots past the Diversion Ditch. That’s because the Diversion Ditch splits off the main part of Bens Branch at almost 90 degrees.

*Diversion Ditch = white. Bens Branch = red.*

Partially as a consequence, during Harvey, 100% of the businesses along Bens Branch in Town Center, dozens of homes, and Kingwood High School flooded badly and still have elevated flood risk.

For instance, during Harvey, large parts of Town Center had 4- to 8-feet of water. Moreover, 12 people died at a retirement home in Town Center as a result of evacuation or immediately after it.

A detention basin at the junction of Bens Branch and the Diversion Ditch would slow incoming water down. That would give the stormwater a chance to drain into each channel the way it was originally designed to.

The volume of stormwater detention that De Leon discussed would provide enough to accommodate Phase II, insufficiently mitigated upstream development, future expansion, and part of HCFCD’s plans for the Diversion Ditch.

The community will need it eventually, especially when Northpark Drive bridges over the two channels are raised. The higher roadway will eliminate chokepoints that let more floodwater flow downstream. So, building more detention now could protect people along both channels – and sooner rather than later.

Engineering details are still being worked out. The board took no action on it this morning, nor were they asked to.