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DNAguy

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Everything posted by DNAguy

  1. DNAguy
    Two thoughts: 1.) The slow march of the eventual merging of Upper Kirby, Greenway, Highland Village, ROD, and finally the Galleria keeps progressing 2.) The AT&T building's (or at least its large parking lot) days are numbered.
  2. DNAguy
    In the new configuration, you'd be able to exit for Houston Ave, Turn right on Houston, then turn left at the Allen Parkway intersection, and then take the cloverleaf on-ramp to the Spur. I guess in that way, the cloverleaf entrance does have a benefit in that it can serve both memorial AND allen parkway.
  3. DNAguy
    Also, Why use the clover-leaf design from Allen Parkway eastbound to the Spur northbound? Would it be a better use of space to just make that a flyover? Heck it might even add some symmetry. It also allows for an almost city block sized parcel of land to open up for development if sold by TxDOT
  4. DNAguy
    Why is the Walker street to Allen Parkway west connection left in the design? Do we really need this road? It cuts off the Sam Houston Park from the Bayou unnecessarily. If the new, nice suspension bridge goes in which will help to reduce the obstructions between the parks, why put in a street that will most likely have cars driving 35-45 mph on it? It's not like this street really helps with access or addresses any real traffic need as Sabine St. can be accessed via an intersection with Allen Pkwy now. You can get on Allen Pkwy from Lamar which is … a block away! I say eliminate it, reduce the need to keep it up, increase access from Bayou trails-Buffalo Bayou Park-City Hall, and reduce the potential for cars coming into contact with pedestrians / runners.
  5. DNAguy
  6. DNAguy
    Whatever happened to TMC3?
  7. DNAguy
    My take: 1.) SB 45 connector does not need 3 lanes past the midtown / Bagby exit. It would seem highly unlikely that there is enough traffic demand for east / west downtown south downtown / upper midtown lanes coming from I10 or 45. 2.) The McKinney to Lamar St road along bayou not needed. Downtown street grid is sufficient. Plus it will add more area to the park and allow for almost unmolested access from the hike/bike bayou trail to City Hall, Sam Houston Park, and the Public Library. 3.) The eastbound Allen Prkway to NB connector cloverleaf on-ramp needs to go. The demand for this direct ramp do no support the real-estate it takes up. Considering that it would take ~ 5 more minutes to require folks to take two lefts (Dallas @ Bagby and Bagby @ Walker), I can't see how tying up real-estate that could be sold to a developer for a skyscraper makes sense. I would say that a compromise might be that a direct connector from Westbound W. Dallas St to the NB connector lanes. This would add another outlet for western downtown traffic and the folks on Allen Parkway would then just turn right at Clay / W Dallas. It would take some land acquisition from the parking lot, but also
  8. DNAguy
    This
  9. DNAguy
    Looks like they're removing trees / vegitation at the 288-610 interchange as of yesterday. Sorry no pics. Traffic was actually moving well heading west yesterday at rush hour. Sidenote: Is there a more mind-boggling bad stretch of freeway in Houston as 610 between 288 and 45/225? I'm not talking about traffic (but it sure does get bad.... Just not as bad as other stretches) per se, but the design. You can really tell that it was built to older and lower standards of freeway design. The short on ramps and off ramps, the discountinuous frontage roads, the relatively sharp curves / obstructed sight lines, and the terrible 45 interchange all create massive backups everyday that just wouldn't be there with a properly designed highway. Outside of the 45 interchange, there is some real low hanging TxDOT fruit when it comes to reducing congestion. Maybe the traffic count and the demographics of the area just don't support it.
  10. DNAguy
    My thoughts FWIW: To my knowledge, this is a design-build project much like the southern section of SH130 south of Austin.... at least to the Brazoria county line. After that, its all on the Brazoria equivalent of HCTRA. Therefore, no concessions were made to allow for HOV's to use the toll lanes. This is a large mistake and is worth derision. However, I do feel as if this is a good deal for TxDOT and tax payers as they don't have to pay for the upgrade ... the engineering company has exclusive toll rights for like 60 years. In addition, they throw in upgrades to the 610 and Beltway 8 interchanges. That's a pretty nice bonus. I say its probably the best use of this agreement because there is still a "free" option to drive on that not frontage roads and is actually grade separated highway. The toll company can't "force" you to use the toll lanes as they could if a new highway was being put in. That reduces the likelihood of huge price increases on tolls and adds a downward pressure on pricing. Full disclosure: I like trains. I like commuter trains and hope Houston eventually gets them. I like how when I go to Europe, DC, NY, etc that I don't need a car and train + uber seems to work well. However, trains in the middle of freeways (and this one especially) don't work all the at well. Where would the stops be? How would people get to them? Right now commuter trains don't make sense for Brazoria county. However, we need to preserve / start movement on the existing tracks along FM 521 and Mykawa Rd / Tx35. Maybe one day, those alignments can be used for commuter rail into the city with spurs to Hobby airport (for Mykawa) or the Medical Center (FM 521). To be honest, TxDOT, METRO, Harris County, and Houston + surrounding municipalities should be incentivizing train companies to build newer train tracks in areas outside of the suburbs and city if / when possible. If that were the case, then older lines / ROW within the city could be used for commuter service.
  11. DNAguy
  12. DNAguy
    In addition, they're not going to meet the job targets that would need to happen.
  13. DNAguy
    https://www.texastribune.org/2016/06/17/lawmaker-eminent-domain-question-high-speed-rail/comments/ Paxton being asked to rule on whether eminent domain can be used for the bullet train.
  14. DNAguy
  15. DNAguy
    Why? I always thought that the La Quinta was a .......
  16. DNAguy
    I refuse to believe that crown is not one large stadium seating operating room where people are secretly turned into bionic super beings a-la- the million dollar man. [/7 year old imagination]
  17. DNAguy
    Is there an article that discusses this?
  18. DNAguy
    I don't want to step on any toes as MaxConcrete usually posts in both forums AND this isn't technically part of the Grand Parkway, but this section of 146 could make up part of the 3rd ringed highway around Houston. http://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17479.0
  19. DNAguy
    Is this not the same site? Sorry.
  20. DNAguy
    http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2016/02/upscale-washingtonheights-mixed-use-finally.html - Wrong thread, please delete
  21. DNAguy
    More than likely it would consist of A&M's main campus w/ the Galveston extension along with Tech in Lubbock and UH all joining the UT system. There would then probably be some horse trading with the loss of schools like UT Permian basin and/or UT Arlington and/or UT Tyler. Then the separate Medical schools would be combined w/ an institution or something.... Southwestern w/ UT Dallas, UTMB with A&M College Station+Galveston and UT Houston + MD Anderson with UH. Or something like that. IDK. Everyone else would then be combined like Texas State, Sam Houston, SFA, North Texas, UH Victoria, UH Sugar Land, Sul Ross St., etc, etc. ANDDDDDD then all community colleges would be rolled in together like San Jac, Lone Star, ACC, HCC, etc to form the 3rd tier. Then you'd be right that the PUF would go squarely to the UT system.
  22. DNAguy
    We're getting an Awesome store?! Holy crap! Here I thought we were going to get a Mediocre Market or a Bland Emporium. It's not Bork but hey, we can't get everything. I'm totes excited guys.
  23. DNAguy
    This is a classic "debottlenecking" project / issue. We've beautified the Bayou west of downtown.... now we've exposed the downtown section (next bottleneck) for what it is.... piss poor. [pun intended] What's left to do? Beautify the downtown section. Easy. In actuality though, this will be incredibly difficult. The street level bridges over the bayou are god awful. It would take a major city effort ($$$$) to right this wrong. Certain streets that span the bayou need to be eliminated altogether and others altered significantly. The main culprit is the monstrosity around the Smith / Congress Ave / Franklin / Louisiana cluster f*&$*. Congress Ave. needs to stop at Smith... actually it would be better to stop at Louisiana. Franklin street on the north of the bayou needs to be realigned / pull back from the bayou. I say make it a one way (headed east) rd that then ties into commerce. Eliminate the section of Washington that is only there for the parking lot. Have Smith and Louisiana span over Franklin / Commerce and then tie into the 45 or 10 connectors. I can[t remember what connects what. .
  24. DNAguy
    I've never had an issue with parking at either Town center or City Centre. Yes I can't park in front of the J Crew, but there's always parking in the parking garage. I'm starting to get skeptical now that I'm hearing 'parking' as a selling pt. You know what has EVEN more / better parking?!..... the Walmart that'll be across the street..... the iconic Stafford Walmart. Whatever the parking situation is at the former TI headquarters, you better lock your car and leave nothing in view. There will be theft. Oh yes. There will be theft.
  25. DNAguy
    "If you have to ask big man, you can't afford it." ]
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