Pearland Tackles Traffic With 6 Road Projects

Pearland Tackles Traffic With 6 Road ProjectsDrivers in Pearland should see smoother traffic soon as the city works through six road projects aimed at easing congestion at some of its busiest intersections. The most immediate changes are happening now at Pearland Parkway and Broadway Street, where growth has brought more traffic than the intersection was originally built to handle. Crews are installing new traffic signal poles, widening the roadway, and adding sidewalks, with work set to finish by the end of September at a cost of $1.83 million. Nearby, several intersections throughout Shadow Creek Ranch are also under construction, with new turn lanes and two new traffic signals, one near Memorial Hermann and Business Center Drive, another at the H-E-B Plus! driveway, plus a new merging lane for westbound traffic on Broadway Street. That $9.04 million project should also wrap up by late September.Looking further ahead, the city has several more projects in the design phase. Pearland Parkway and Barry Rose Road will get new turn lanes to boost capacity, though that $1.52 million project, funded largely by federal money, won't be finished until mid-2027. The city is also planning a new traffic signal at Kingsley Drive and Southern Trails Drive, an intersection that currently has none, with construction expected to start in mid-December and finish by mid-2027 at a cost of $920,000. A smaller, $500,000 project will bring landscaping, trees, plants, and irrigation, to the bare medians along Kingsley and Kirby drives, with construction beginning in December.The biggest project on the list is the Hughes Road expansion, a $12.25 million effort to widen the two-lane road into a four-lane boulevard between Pearland Parkway and the city limits. The growth of the Riverstone Ranch neighborhood has driven up traffic in the area, and the project will also involve relocating part of the city's sewer system to make way for a new bridge. Design work is nearly complete, and the project is expected to be finished by mid-2028. Altogether, the six projects reflect the city's effort to keep its infrastructure ahead of Pearland's rapid growth.