HOUSTON – Voters will head to the polls in Montgomery County on Saturday to decide on a big issue: a $350 million bond to pay for the expansion, construction and repair of roads.
Drivers around the county agree that traffic is bad.
"It's been getting a lot worse," one driver told KPRC 2.
"It's rapidly growing and the roads are not growing with the rate of population," Twilia Rodriguez said. "It can take 45 minutes to go two miles."
The population is expected to double by 2035 to a million people or more.
The $350 million road bond identifies 77 projects across the county intended to help with mobility. A big chunk-- $60 million-- would go toward the expansion of Rayford Road.
"Rayford Road right now is just literally a parking lot almost all day long but certainly at traffic hours high and low," Nelda Luce Blair, co-chairman of the bond committee that identified the priority projects, said.
Not everyone is on board, though.
Gordy Bunch stepped down from the bond committee because of one project that is proving to be quite controversial: a $22 million, 6-mile extension of Woodlands Parkway to Highway 249.
"We have a traffic study that shows adding that extension would add 6,000 cars to our existing infrastructure. It takes our level of service from a C, which is acceptable to a level of service F, which is a failure," Bunch, who is The Woodlands township director, said.
Voters in Montgomery County passed a road bond package in 2005, but another road bond was defeated four years ago.
People on both sides of the bond package say the vote will be close.
County officials say 16,500 people cast their ballot before early voting ended Tuesday night.