Memorial Drive Got New Asphalt This Year. Here's Why the Work Around Piney Point Isn't Finished

The stretch of Memorial Drive between Chimney Rock and San Felipe now has smooth, dark asphalt and bright reflective striping. Harris County Precinct 3 started the $2.5 million resurfacing in late February and has since marked the project complete. In September, single-lane closures came back to Memorial Drive and San Felipe Street for the next layer of work.

The corridor is being rebuilt in layers, and the top layer was finished first. Under the pavement, a sewer trunkline from 1960 is being replaced in phases. Above it, three traffic signals more than 20 years old are waiting on a county rebuild. At San Felipe and Kinkaid Drive, a redesigned intersection is targeted for construction in summer 2027. Each piece belongs to a different agency with its own schedule. Knowing who owns which piece makes a closure easy to read when it shows up on your route.

The pavement was the fast part

The Precinct 3 project milled the old surface, made localized base repairs, and laid new asphalt with reflective striping through both Piney Point Village and Hunters Creek Village. METRO helped fund it, Durwood Greene Construction was the contractor, and WBS did the design. In February, Piney Point Village's public notice said work could begin as early as February 23, 2026, and would take about 222 calendar days with temporary lane closures while access stayed open.

Resurfacing is a single job on a single surface with a single contractor, so it can be planned and finished on a calendar. The rest of the corridor's work is harder to schedule.

Underneath: a sewer line from 1960

The Memorial Villages Water Authority, or MVWA, runs the sanitary sewer under Memorial Drive. Its capital plan, attached to Piney Point Village's September 28, 2026 council packet, lists the main along Memorial as built in 1960. Phase 1 replaces about 1.2 miles, or 6,336 linear feet, of trunkline shared with the City of Bunker Hill, running along Memorial Drive to the wastewater treatment plant.

That project caused this fall's lane closures. According to the city engineer's report in the same packet, the contractor began removing the temporary bypass in September. Crews closed single lanes on Memorial Drive and San Felipe Street from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., in sections 300 to 400 feet long, for about six days. The remaining manhole rehabilitation was set for the weekend of October 2. It was scheduled around Kinkaid's homecoming events to keep weekday traffic moving. That September update is the latest public status, and it doesn't say Phase 1 is finished.

Phase 2 is the part most likely to affect a Piney Point commute later on. The MVWA plan lists it as a replacement of 1.3 miles from Voss Road to San Felipe, estimated at $2.4 million. That is a longer run than Phase 1, and it sits under the section of Memorial Drive that was just repaved. The engineer's report includes Phase 2 among MVWA's future Piney Point projects, along with a one-mile waterline replacement and new booster pumps and a generator at the water plant. It doesn't give a start date for any of them. According to the same capital plan, about 20 miles of waterline in Piney Point are still waiting for cast-iron replacement.

Overhead: three signals, two tracks

The traffic signals add a second schedule on top of the sewer work. On October 30, 2025, Harris County Commissioners Court took final action on a contract awarding Statewide Traffic Signal Company a $1,466,734 contract to rebuild three signals in Piney Point Village: Memorial Drive at Blalock Road, at Piney Point Road, and at San Felipe. The county's agenda item says the existing signals went in more than 20 years ago. The rebuild is meant to bring them up to current standards, improve pedestrian connections, and reduce the risk of failure during a catastrophic event. It is a joint project of the city, Precinct 3, and the Office of the County Engineer. In August, the county told the city that Phase 1 of the signal replacement was expected to start construction in late September or early October, according to the city's August 24 council packet. The September packet didn't update that window, so there's no firm start date on record.

Signals don't wait for contracts, though, and the city has been paying to keep them working in the meantime. At its September meeting, council reviewed about $61,700 in signal work at three intersections, not counting a separate loop repair at Farnham Park.

• Memorial Drive and Blalock Road. The city replaced the overhead cables for $7,256.50. Southbound detection kept failing, so it added two new loops in the concrete for $6,200.45. The work was finished the week of September 21, for a total of $13,456.95.
• San Felipe and Memorial. A new controller for the existing cabinet was approved for $6,812.00. On September 14, the supplier estimated a two-week lead time.
• San Felipe and Farnham Park Drive. A cabinet replacement that meets Harris County standards, with a pedestrian module, costs $41,419.15. The supplier quoted a lead time of about six months. Southbound detection loops, approved for another $4,527.80, were scheduled for the week of October 5.

Two of those intersections, Memorial at Blalock and Memorial at San Felipe, are also on the county's rebuild list. Paying for stopgap repairs on signals that are already scheduled for replacement shows how far apart the two tracks are. The county is still working out details too. Council was asked whether to paint the free-swinging sign hardware on the rebuilt signals, and the county estimated the extra cost at $2,000 to $4,000 if the city chooses to.

The corridor, layer by layer

Next on San Felipe: the Kinkaid Drive intersection

The most visible change still to come is at San Felipe and Kinkaid Drive. At the September council meeting, the design team showed an updated concept with a reconstructed signal, dual left-turn lanes into Kinkaid, revised lane layouts and signal phasing, updated ADA and pedestrian facilities, and a pedestrian refuge about eight feet wide. According to the minutes, the dual left-turn lanes would add a lot more room for cars to stack up waiting to turn.

The San Felipe median will look different afterward. The minutes say several existing trees there are unhealthy and would be replaced with landscaping and smaller trees that fit the narrower median, not large oaks. Kinkaid will submit landscaping plans for the city to review and will run an internal traffic study on how cars move through its campus. Council supported further design work toward construction in summer 2027 but took no formal action.

The engineer's report expected 60% plans by October 12, ahead of the Planning and Zoning meeting on October 22, as part of Kinkaid's upcoming request for a special use permit. The city also asked for a project schedule and suggested a community meet-and-greet to hear neighborhood concerns early. Summer 2027 is still a target, and a special use permit and county coordination both have to happen before any construction date is set.

The longer-range pieces

Two more items could change how Memorial Drive works in Piney Point.

The first is near Flag Tree Park and the Heaven's 27 Memorial. HDR has drawn up concepts for filling and enclosing the open ditch along Memorial Drive, and the county has said it will look at extending the fill beyond Memorial Circle. The mayor asked HDR to bring back a $25,911.40 drainage study covering Memorial Circle to Tynewood Ditch, and the city, HDR, and the county had a meeting scheduled for September 30. It is still in the study stage. Farther south, the city is pricing a similar enclosure for the ditch on the west side of Memorial Drive near South Country Squire. According to the engineer, an early survey found that a storm sewer there would be too flat to clean itself out.

The second is a corridor study. The council packet describes a proposed $9,000 application to the Houston-Galveston Area Council's 2026 subregional planning program. The study would focus on intersection improvements, multimodal paths, bike, pedestrian and school traffic safety, and congestion management. The city planned to coordinate with Bunker Hill, the City of Houston, and Harris County on letters of support. Phase 1 submissions closed October 19, and H-GAC expects to finish its review by December 31, 2026.

Some work will be harder to spot. AT&T submitted 31 plan sheets for fiber, with conduit to be bored under the right-of-way from pits in the green space rather than trenched. The city engineer didn't expect it to affect sidewalks, driveways, or pavement, and issued a letter of no objection on July 10.

Reading the next closure

When cones show up on Memorial Drive, the location usually tells you which project it is. A daytime lane closure in a short section between Voss and San Felipe is most likely MVWA sewer work. Crews at Blalock, Piney Point Road, or the San Felipe split are most likely signal work, either the city's interim repairs or the county rebuild once it starts. Work at San Felipe and Kinkaid Drive belongs to the intersection project, which is still in design. Piney Point Village's council packets, posted on cityofpineypoint.com, carry the city engineer's monthly status report on each item. The next update is the October 26 council meeting.

If you're planning a sale or a renovation in the Villages over the next year, it helps to know which stretches of Memorial Drive and San Felipe may be under construction during showings and move-in days. Julie Sheets tracks these schedules for the clients she works with and is happy to go over the timing with you. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready.