Residents urge Brazos County to pause East Loop work, request independent study and protections for homes

Several residents urged the Brazos County Commissioners Court on Feb. (date not specified) to halt work on the proposed Inner East Loop (East Loop) highway project, ask that engineers follow environmental‑justice principles and consider a no‑build alternative, and commission an independent traffic study that is not financially connected to road construction firms.

The comments came during the court’s public‑comment period from multiple speakers who identified themselves as longtime county residents and supporters of the No East Loop Coalition. Thomas Daniel opened the set of comments by asking the commissioners “to require the environmental and design engineers to adhere to the spirit of environmental justice and ensure that poor neighborhoods and culturally significant areas are not adversely impacted.”

Kathy Veinsch and other speakers pressed for clearer justification for the project’s forecasted population growth and said engineering projections should show scenarios “with and without the highway.” Veinsch said groups including a “nationally renowned election integrity expert” and a Texas A&M professor have repeatedly engaged the court on local election questions and related civic matters; she also told commissioners that many public questions about agenda items remain unanswered and urged the court to be better informed before approving major projects.

Speaker Kyle Greenwood presented the county bond program list to the court and asked why the Inner East Loop, listed as the first bond program item, had not been publicly discussed by the county judge. Greenwood proposed issuing a stop‑work order on the contract and holding public discussions on viable alternatives.

Chris Barnes asked the court to cancel the contract with ITS Inquity (named in public comments) and to commission “an independent road study” whose authors are not financially linked to firms that would build the road. Barnes told the court that admitting a mistake and canceling the contract would be the appropriate remedy if the contract signing was erroneous.

Speakers repeatedly urged that the design process evaluate alternatives that avoid taking private homes. One commenter said they had seen highway projects in denser jurisdictions where homes were not acquired and argued Brazos County engineers should aim for the same outcome.

Speakers referenced local facilities and likely traffic generators — the RELLIS campus, Texas A&M University and Easterwood Airport — and asked engineers to assess whether additional development on the county’s eastern corridor would increase east‑west congestion. Several asked that engineers base growth projections on statistical probability and explicitly show how projected growth drives the need for a new loop.

The court did not take formal action on the East Loop contract during the meeting’s public‑comment period. Multiple speakers requested specific next steps — stop work, contract cancellation, and an independent study — but the transcript does not show a motion or vote by the court to implement those requests at this meeting.

The public‑comment sequence concluded before the court moved to presentations and routine agenda items.