A new sewer system is set to serve the east side of Downtown Fulshear.

What you need to know: At a Nov. 18 meeting, Fulshear City Council unanimously approved a $2.33 million construction contract with Conrad Construction to add a storm sewer system for the east side of Downtown.

The Downtown Eastside Drainage project, which was identified as a priority in the city’s drainage master plan, will also reconstruct Fourth Street to a concrete curb and gutter street with on-street parking and add an 8-foot sidewalk along the road, according to agenda documents.

Zooming out: The project comes as several projects are underway in the downtown area, including a $3.75 million reconstruction of Harris Street as well as design for the West Downtown street reconstruction, Community Impact reported.

What’s next: The project has an estimated completion time frame of 330 days, per agenda documents.

Irish clothing retailer Primark has opened its third Texas location in Katy Mills Mall, joining El Paso and McAllen.

Zooming out: The franchise, which sells men's, women's and children's clothing, has over 470 stores across 18 countries, according to its website.

• 5000 Katy Mills Circle, Ste. 643, Katy

Several organizations are hosting free Thanksgiving dinners, distributing free food and delivering free meals in the Greater Houston area this Thanksgiving season.

Turkey and Blessings
The Lindale Church is hosting a free Thanksgiving worship service and dinner for the community.

• Nov. 25, 6:30-8 p.m.
• Free
• Lindale Church, 503 Reid St., Houston

• Nov. 26, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Free
• Salem Community Center, 22601 Lutheran Church Road, Tomball

• Nov. 27, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
• Free (admission)
• 12100 Champion Forest Drive, Houston

Thanksgiving week is expected to be one of the busiest U.S. travel periods in history, according to projections from AAA. A record 5.8 million Texans are projected to travel at least 50 miles from home Nov. 25-Dec. 1.

Zooming in: About 5.3 million Texans are expected to drive to their Thanksgiving destinations, according to a Nov. 17 news release, while about 328,000 people will fly and 140,000 will use other forms of transportation.

The impact: Texans should give themselves extra time to reach their destinations during Thanksgiving week, with the most congestion expected Nov. 25-26. Traffic is also expected to be heavy as Texans return home Nov. 30, according to INRIX, a transportation data company.

Minimal traffic is expected on Thanksgiving Day.

More details: Texas drivers will pay about the same for gas as they did last Thanksgiving, according to AAA Texas. One gallon of regular unleaded gas cost about $2.65 in Texas as of Nov. 13, down from $2.69 last year.

Google is targeting Texas for future investments in data and artificial infrastructure, with $40 billion expected to be spent on adding three new data centers.

Federal, state and local leaders announced the new centers to be constructed in Armstrong and Haskell counties at a Nov. 14 event at the first Texas Google Data Center in Midlothian, near the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The gist: One new data center will be constructed in Armstrong County near Amarillo, and two new data centers will be constructed in Haskell County near Abilene. One center in Haskell County will also use a new solar and battery energy storage plant.

“They say that everything is bigger in Texas—and that certainly applies to the golden opportunity with AI,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.

Also of note: The driverless car company Waymo is expanding to North Texas in 2026, Pichai said.