Exxon campus may coincide with Grand Parkway openings

Plans for a new Exxon Mobil campus near The Woodlands and nearby segments of the Grand Parkway coincide in 2015.

Plans for a new Exxon Mobil campus near The Woodlands and nearby segments of the Grand Parkway coincide in 2015.

Exxon Mobil confirmed Tuesday the long-running leaks and rumors about a new campus, located near the intersection of I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road, at which it will consolidate employees from various Houston-area offices. In a press release, the company said employees will begin moving in in early 2014, and that the campus will be complete sometime in 2015.

"The size of that campus, bringing that many people into a single location, means that mobility has got to be key, and that means the Grand Parkway," says Gil Staley, CEO of the South Montgomery County Woodlands Economic Development Partnership. Staley says officials in both Montgomery and Harris Counties have been meeting periodically to discuss what they've heard about the project, which is located in Harris County, but near the county line.

David Gornet, Executive Director of the Grand Parkway Association, says that Segments F-1 and G of the area-spanning toll-road project are both scheduled to be open for traffic in 2015. Together, these two segments will span nearly 26 miles from the Tomball Parkway, across I-45, into Montgomery County and to the Eastex Freeway (US 59).

Though the route was planned long before anyone knew of the Exxon campus, Gornet admits that "it does complement the Exxon opening."

"Early traffic studies did not reflect that there would be this big of a traffic generator," he says. "This is a significantly more intense land use that might have been, and would generate more trips and therefore would help make the road more successful."