BRAZORIA COUNTY – Making Highway 35 from the Gulf Freeway to Alvin a major highway has been in TxDOT plans for many years.
Plans to expand Highway 35 are in the very early preliminary stages -- nothing has been decided just yet. Transportation experts say, figuring out what to do with this stretch of road is on top of their to-do list.
“Highway 35 runs from Brazoria County into east downtown Houston and it’s already had some work done in the past we expanded Highway 35 a number of years ago, to get traffic flowing, particularly from the beltway to FM-518,” a spokesperson for TxDOT says.
Brazoria County
- Population Growth – In 2010 there were approximately 313,000 residents. In 2020 there were approximately 372,000. This is roughly a 19% growth, which is about 2% per year.
Who has a say?
- City of Alvin
- City of Pearland
- Brazoria County
- Houston-Galveston Area Council
“[It’s] really important to have something that they can use to travel into the core of downtown, or the city and keep them from having to gravitate into those major corridors,” a spokesperson for TxDOT said.
Like Interstate 45 and State Highway 288. Both of these main corridors already sustain heavy traffic on a daily basis. Though this work is of high interest for the City of Pearland, what ever decision is made regarding Highway 35, has to make sense for everyone in Brazoria County.
“Improvements on Hwy 35 would benefit Alvin by accommodating regional population growth, reducing traffic congestion, increasing mobility north/south, and expedite hurricane evacuations,” said Dixie Roberts, Assistant City Manager for the City of Alvin. “Alvin is growing rapidly with several new subdivisions underway. A new $200 million hospital and medical complex has just been announced to be built in Alvin on Hwy 35. Alvin continues to grow and has a vibrant future ahead.”
Right now, drivers can use Highway 35 from Brazoria County into downtown Houston, but the road turns into Telephone Road. It is not a continuous major highway. Making a change like this to keep traffic moving at a better pace on Highway 35 is still in the works. TxDOT officials are hoping the Houston-Galveston Area Council will put this on its 2050 plan.