MaxConcrete Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 The Houston Freeways book recently observed the 5th anniversary of its publication and I posted the 5-year retrospective report, looking back on what has happened in the last 5 years.http://houstonfreeways.com/5_year_retrospective.htmlweb site home page: http://houstonfreeways.com/default.aspxIt was an great 5-year period for the freeways, with construction achievements to rival the period of most intense original freeway construction, 1957-1962.Sadly, the construction program has collapsed with almost no new contract awards in the last two years, and in about 6 months I think we will have only one large project in the entire region, I-45 in Conroe.If I missed anything or anyone has some better info on the upcoming projects, please post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolBuddy06 Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 I heard of four toll lanes on 288 between 610 and County Rd 56 in Brazoria county, with futuristic interchange at 610 and direct connector to Texas Medical Center via Almeda. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chenevert Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 I could use a year or two with little or no construction.Having all those projects going at once (I10, 610, 59, etc) made getting around nearly impossible.I remember one weekend where all three were closed due to construction. I actually felt trapped inside the loop.Anyways, great book, I have a copy in my library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 What you said about the Grand Parkway in Baytown is probably pretty dead-on. I've driven it a few times and I don't think I saw another car the whole section that they're tolling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolBuddy06 Posted September 30, 2008 Share Posted September 30, 2008 I could use a year or two with little or no construction.Having all those projects going at once (I10, 610, 59, etc) made getting around nearly impossible.I remember one weekend where all three were closed due to construction. I actually felt trapped inside the loop.Anyways, great book, I have a copy in my library.Closing three arterial freeways one weekend is a little stressful but I can do with few years of construction and many years of record setting speed than to leave things as it is. Just look at I-10, I now see policemen with radars around Bingle EB exit. Now that's a freeway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desirous Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 What happened to the 290 expansion? www.my290.com is still up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Chenevert Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 What happened to the 290 expansion? www.my290.com is still up.Try reading the website. All the details are there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Voice of University Oaks Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Hey Erik:Is there any way you could create a printable .pdf of that webpage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbigtex56 Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 Sadly, the construction program has collapsed"Sadly"?Heaven forfend that more rational alternatives be explored! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wernicke Posted October 5, 2008 Share Posted October 5, 2008 There is a lot of good information and insights in this retrospective. Solid work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted October 5, 2008 Author Share Posted October 5, 2008 Is there any way you could create a printable .pdf of that webpage?No, not easily in a properly-formatted pdf document.However, the document does print nicely from IE or Firefox (in fact, formatting is somewhat better in Firefox).I sent the Firefox output to a PDFhttp://www.houstonfreeways.com/images/Hous...trospective.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolaboy Posted March 4, 2013 Share Posted March 4, 2013 I noticed that the website http://www.houstonfreeways.com/ has been updated for the book's 10th anniversary. Does anybody know if Slotboom is working on a 10-year update/retrospective similar to how he did his 5-yr in 2008? Edit: There are some February 2013 updates added to the 5-year retrospective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Broadfoot Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Wow! I actually have a mint copy of this book. I bought it years ago and read it cover to cover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Vik Posted March 5, 2013 Share Posted March 5, 2013 Only in Texas do we celebrate freeway construction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tumbleweed_Tx Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 ^^^^ you make that sound like a bad thing... lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Vik Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 ^^^^ you make that sound like a bad thing... lolThey serve their purpose but we've taken it to the extreme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted March 7, 2013 Author Share Posted March 7, 2013 I noticed that the website http://www.houstonfreeways.com/ has been updated for the book's 10th anniversary. Does anybody know if Slotboom is working on a 10-year update/retrospective similar to how he did his 5-yr in 2008? Edit: There are some February 2013 updates added to the 5-year retrospective. I can answer that question. I plan to do a 10-year retrospective this year, but it won't be within the next few months. With the recent completion of the HoustonFreeways web site restyling (and moving it onto ASP.Net MVC 4 with a mobile device site), my current top priority is to bring the Dallas-Fort Worth freeways book to a conclusion. (www.DFWFreeways.com) Interest in the DFW book has been extremely low - much, much lower than the interest in Houston Freeways (which exceeded expectations). Consequently, the DFW book will not be printed and the integrated eBook will be offered for sale only to satisfy IRS requirements that the book was not a "hobby." Score a win for Houston in terms of interest in freeways! So it will probably be sometime this summer for the 10-year retrospective. I'll post a notice on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevfiv Posted March 7, 2013 Share Posted March 7, 2013 Thank you for the update! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolaboy Posted November 4, 2013 Share Posted November 4, 2013 Erik, are you still planning to complete the 10 year retrospective this year? Will it be in a similar format as the 5 year retrospective was, or will it be more similar to the Feb 2013 updates? Keep up the great work! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted November 5, 2013 Author Share Posted November 5, 2013 Erik, are you still planning to complete the 10 year retrospective this year? Will it be in a similar format as the 5 year retrospective was, or will it be more similar to the Feb 2013 updates? Keep up the great work! Thanks! Unfortunately the 10-year retrospective is most likely not going to happen. The reason is because all my spare time is being consumed with the final push to bring closure to the Dallas-Fort Worth Freeways ebook ( http://www.dfwfreeways.com/ ), which is taking much, much longer than expected. It is possible I'll have time for a retrospective in 2014, but then it would be an 11-year retrospective, which doesn't really sound like a milestone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FIREhat Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 Will the book ever be printed again? I'm awfully happy that I have a copy of it but feel like it should still be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted December 1, 2013 Share Posted December 1, 2013 I think in lieu of a 10 11 year retrospective, just go for the gold and get the book a second printing. DFW freeways just don't have the same intrigue of Houston freeways--a squiggly mess of generic freeways with unpredictable traffic patterns. (I'm sure many here agree) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted December 2, 2013 Share Posted December 2, 2013 ^^^ in case there's any doubt, the squiggly mess is the Dallas freeways. Houston's is a busy but consistent collection of loops and spokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted December 2, 2013 Author Share Posted December 2, 2013 Will the book ever be printed again? I'm awfully happy that I have a copy of it but feel like it should still be available. No, there will not be another printing of Houston Freeways. But the digital book is always available for free and there are always used books available via Amazon. During the last year used book prices were as low as I've ever seen them (actually below list price), but I see that prices have gone back up.http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0974160539/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all Actually, a revised edition would really be nice to include the Katy Freeway, Grand Parkway and all the other improvements since 2003. But I don't envision any scenario where that would be possible. Eventually I'll start updating http://www.HoustonFreeways.com with new photos and updates. But first I need to bring the DFW Freeways book http://www.DFWFreeways.com to a conclusion - I spent all of this long weekend working on the files and I'm hoping to be done by the end of this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Specwriter Posted December 3, 2013 Share Posted December 3, 2013 Thanks, Max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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