Along with death and taxes, one other thing Houston area residents can be pretty certain about heading into 2016 is that they will encounter road work - lots of it.

Continued growth in rapidly developing parts of the region means that the business of expanding and extending freeways never tapers off - as soon as major projects are completed, new ones are started - and this year will be no exception.

Buoyed by the Houston area's economic growth - from about 2.3 million jobs in 1999 to 3 million this year, according to the Greater Houston Partnership - construction of new or wider freeways in 2016 will be focused in suburban areas where traffic congestion has worsened.

The Texas Department of Transportation has $1.27 billion worth of projects slated for approval this year along Houston-area roads. Most of them add lanes to freeways, tollways and highways.

As a result, in Harris County and the seven counties that surround it, only mostly rural Waller County does not have a freeway project estimated to cost at least $100 million planned to start construction in 2016. Major expansions of U.S. 290 and Texas 249, meanwhile, will bring tollways or wider freeways practically to the Waller County line.

In Fort Bend County, relentless residential development and a push to convert U.S. 59 into Interstate 69 will move farther south.

In December, state transportation officials approved a $100.1 million improvement project along U.S. 59 from Spur 10 south of Rosenberg to west of Darst Road in Kendleton. The freeway will expand to three lanes with continuous two-lane frontage roads in each direction.

A later project will upgrade U.S. 59 to six lanes and interstate standards - a divided highway meant for higher speeds with no at-grade crossings - to Wharton County.

"It's terrible'

As some prepare for miles of orange cones, however, others anxiously await the end of current construction jobs.

The most significant opening in the Houston region will be the 38-mile segment of the Grand Parkway from U.S. 290 to U.S. 59 near Humble.

The segment was expected to open in late 2015, but heavy rains in May and June delayed some work.

Officials predict that the lanes will open by the end of March, said Raquelle Lewis, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston.

Builders of the parkway section announced Monday that all of the bridge work along the route is completed.

Stretching across a sometimes marshy plain of southern Texas, this piece of the parkway includes 121 bridges, requiring 3,802 concrete beams.

The tollway "can't open soon enough," said Steven Colt, 55, who lives near the spot where the road will cross Champion Forest Drive.

Many consider this the most important segment of the parkway, but it is hardly the last.

Later this year, state officials will award a contract to build 37.5 miles of the tollway from U.S. 59 near Humble to Interstate 10 east of Baytown.

Unlike the nearly 40-mile widening project along U.S. 290, which commuters will endure every day until it's finished in 2017, work on the Grand Parkway spreads across undeveloped land.

Residents and traffic along cross-streets has been affected, however.

Colt moved to Houston in 2008. Traffic congestion has increased everywhere since then, he said.

"Everybody talks about it," he said. "No matter where you go, it's terrible."

That frustration across the metro area has prompted voters to continually approve new funding for roads and transit.

Since 2012, when the Metropolitan Transit Authority won approval to continue its 1 percent sales tax, voters have overwhelmingly supported transportation funding, with the exception of a Montgomery County road bond proposal that drew opposition from Woodlands residents opposed to parkway expansion.

Montgomery County voters passed an amended road plan in November, while voters in Harris County and across Texas also approved additional transportation spending. For state officials, it was the second road package passed by voters in as many years.

'Due diligence'

Metro, meanwhile, has few new projects scheduled in 2016 after six years of light rail construction. Aside from annual bus replacement and upgrades to park and ride lots, transit officials are building a $30 million overpass along Harrisburg. It's the final significant piece of the $2.1 billion light rail expansion.

In the Houston area, the spending focus has decidedly shifted back to roads, which historically have drawn the lion's share of funding.

Those recent voter approvals - coupled with a new, long-term federal transportation bill - have given officials the certainty they need to plan projects. Houston-area elected officials, who dole out money via the Houston-Galveston Area Council, have detailed plans for how to use the new money.

Lewis said state officials are still working through the details, especially regarding the money approved in November through Prop. 7, a state constitutional amendment.

"We now have some predictability," she said, "but at the same time we have some due diligence that we are selecting the best projects."

Shelved projects could see new life or move more quickly to construction as those decisions are made.

For now, though some of the most congested areas remain old standbys such as western portions of Loop 610 and downtown segments of Interstate 45 and U.S. 59, suburban projects dominate upcoming construction plans by TxDOT. Toll projects also play a big role in upcoming work, despite some public disenchantment with tolls.

Texas 288

The largest project, an $800 million addition of toll lanes in the median of Texas 288, remains mired in contract negotiations but is on track to start construction by summer 2016, Lewis said. The project is the first concessionaire agreement in the Houston area, establishing a 50-year partnership between TxDOT and Blueridge Transportation Group to build and manage the road and in return recoup the toll proceeds.

In addition to the tollway, Lewis said the work includes interchanges where the 288 toll road connects to the Sam Houston Tollway and Loop 610. Officials have long considered those connections crucial.

Meanwhile, the Harris County Toll Road Authority is finalizing a $200 million project to widen the Sam Houston Tollway between Texas 288 and Interstate 45.

The widening will expand the tollway to four lanes in each direction - from two lanes in each direction - and add an inside shoulder.

Harris County officials rejected the first round of bids and delayed awarding a contract last year, but work is slated to start in February or March, according to Quinton Alberto, assistant director of maintenance and traffic engineering for the toll road authority.