Drivers on Greens Road, Aldine Bender Road, Greens Parkway and Cotillion Drive should expect lane closures and traffic delays stretching into 2028 as the City of Houston pushes forward with a major wastewater consolidation project across the north Houston corridor.
The nine-phase project, which began in fall 2025, is replacing three aging wastewater treatment plants with a single regional system feeding a mega treatment plant near Bush Intercontinental Airport. Construction is on schedule for completion by winter 2028, according to the North Houston District, which published project details Sunday, Aug. 9.
No full road closures are planned. But work crews and heavy machinery will narrow lanes on multiple corridors for months at a time. Here's the road-by-road breakdown from the project schedule:
- Greens Road: Winter 2026 through fall 2026
- Aldine Bender Road: Summer 2026 through winter 2027
- Cotillion Drive: Fall 2026 through winter 2027
- Greens Parkway: A second closure window runs spring 2027 through summer 2027
- Imperial Valley Drive: Fall 2025 through fall 2026
- Benmar Drive: Two windows, including spring 2027 through winter 2028
Once utility work wraps on each segment, the city will reconstruct impacted roadways and medians to their original condition.
Why it matters
The North Houston area was unincorporated Harris County until the City of Houston annexed it in the 1980s. The city inherited small, piecemeal wastewater plants that served individual neighborhoods. Those smaller facilities posed environmental risks to Greens Bayou because of more frequent processing failures, particularly during heavy rain.
The project decommissions three plants: the Northgate Wastewater Treatment Plant (already converted to a lift station in 2024), the MUD 203 Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Imperial Valley Wastewater Treatment Plant. Their flows will be consolidated into the regional system by 2028.
Two confirmed construction packages carry a combined budget exceeding $106 million. Package 3 is budgeted at $53.7 million and builds more than 10,000 feet of 36-inch gravity sewer connecting the Imperial Valley plant to the Northgate Regional Lift Station. Package 4 adds $52.3 million. The total cost across all nine phases has not been made public.
Robert Fiederlein, vice president of planning and infrastructure at the North Houston District, said the consolidation is part of a citywide push toward regionalization. "We want to share details about the ongoing project to the public so they're aware of the ongoing work in the area and how it will impact them," Fiederlein said.
The Houston-Galveston Area Council has advocated for wastewater regionalization for decades, and the City of Houston is pursuing similar consolidations in Kingwood, West Houston and South Houston.
How to weigh in
Residents and businesses with questions can contact the City of Houston at [email protected] or by calling 311.
