Progress, one decade at a time

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When I first moved here in 1982, I would occasionally get in my car and drive to Houston and see overpass after overpass going nowhere in Fort Bend County.<p>

 

<p>These overpasses spanned U.S. 59, but stopped abruptly on each side of it. Why? A boondoggle? Pork? A mistake? It made no sense to me.<p>

 

<p>Now it makes sense. I now know why.<p>

 

<p>It’s called infrastructure. Sound growth often comes last. Infrastructure often comes first. <p>

 

<p>Those overpasses in Fort Bend County are an example of one of the many connections that needed to happen when the fourth largest city in the United States started creeping their way, and their leaders wanted to take advantage of it and create opportunities for commerce, jobs and quality of life.<p>

 

<p>Those overpasses don’t go “nowhere” any longer.<p>

 

<p>So, if infrastructure is the first thing that often happens, is Wharton creating that infrastructure? I would argue yes, starting with the generation that created an industrial park, lured Nan Ya Plastics and JM to Wharton, built an airport, lobbied for an interstate, looped water and sewer utilities, developed FM 102 at US 59, and much, much more lately.<p>

 

<p>Yes, some may see mistakes, have differing opinions, and there are always thorny complications of land-use policy. But the big stuff, the infrastructure has truly taken precedence.<p>

 

<p>This process really started decades and decades ago here. I can remember city-council planning sessions 30 years ago, for instance, when the extension of 1301 was launched, plus lifting Wharton from harm’s way from flood waters.<p>

 

<p>Yes, it takes that long. Just like it did with Fort Bend overpasses to nowhere.<p>