Considering buying a new home in West Houston? Residents can agree that there is no better place to buy a home than Fort Bend. Fort Bend County has continued to top lists for quality of life and economic prosperity – and there is no sign of slowing down. According to a recent article by Community Impact, a new project known as the Brazoria-Fort Bend Rail District is projected to bring millions of dollars in economic activity.

This story was originally published in Community Impact. You can read the full article here.

The Brazoria-Fort Bend Rail District project consists of a proposed 65-mile stretch of rail line from the Port of Freeport to a proposed logistics facility in Rosenberg. If constructed the rail line could bring millions of dollars in economic activity, thousands of new high paying jobs and other opportunities to the Gulf Coast and Fort Bend county areas, according to local county officials.

Andy Meyers, Fort Bend County Precinct 3 Commissioner, has been involved with the project from early on. Meyers is a member of the Brazoria-Fort Bend Rail District, a group comprised of officials from Brazoria and Fort Bend counties, and has advocated for the rail line as a county commissioner by testifying to the Texas Transportation Commission for funding requests.

“We believe that the only deep-water port on the entire Gulf Coast of Mexico at Freeport will be a tremendous economic boom for our region [and]our area,” Meyers said. “What you will be doing is shipping a lot of the international Asian trade from the west coast to the Gulf Coast and with that comes some really opportunities, higher paying jobs, a lot more businesses, a lot more economic activity-and we don’t want to clog up our roads with a bunch of trucks so we need a rail line.”

Two major factors contribute to the likeliness of the rail line coming to fruition according to Meyers; TxDOT’s continued widening project of Hwy. 36 and the Port of Freeport’s expansion to a deep-water port. The expansion of Hwy. 36 is critical to accommodate current traffic congestion in the area that will likely increase if more jobs and goods are brought in with the rail line, according to Meyers. 

Port authorities have congressional authorization to deepen the port from 45 to 55 feet to accommodate larger container ships, but are waiting on congressional authorization to match funding, Meyers said. If Congress matches the funds to deepen the port, construction on a rail line could start as early as 2020. 

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