SS 197 Grade Separation Feasibility Study

The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the region-wide voluntary association of 133 local governments and local elected officials in the 13-county Gulf Coast Planning region of Texas. Local elected officials organized H-GAC in 1966 after authorization by State enabling legislation. Its service area is 12,500 square miles and includes more than 7-million residents. H-GAC is governed by a 36-member Board of Directors composed of local elected officials, who serve on the governing bodies of member local governments. All H-GAC programs are carried out under the policy direction of its Board of Directors. H-GAC's mission is to serve as the instrument of local government cooperation, promoting the region's orderly development and the safety and welfare of its residents. H-GAC is the regional organization through which local governments consider issues and cooperate in solving area-wide problems. Agency programs emphasize local government concerns, such as transportation, air and water quality, criminal justice, demographic analysis, mapping programs, and intergovernmental purchasing. H-GAC also serves its citizens through workforce development programs, services to the aging and elderly, and small business finance programs. Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO): Designated by the State of Texas as the MPO for the eight-county Houston-Galveston region, the H-GAC Transportation Department is responsible for transportation planning and policymaking, ensuring that expenditures for transportation projects and programs are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning process. Solicitations regarding plans/studies issued by the H-GAC MPO do not seek engineering design services and the associated scopes of work do not intend to seek design services to implement the construction of specific roadways. The plans/studies which H-GAC currently undertakes are the first steps in a process, and do not replace any steps in the engineering design process that will lead to actual construction. H-GAC's plans/studies are not relied upon for any element of engineering design. For more details please visit: About Thoroughfare Planning | Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)