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Spur 5 Extension- Future Highway 35 To Alvin


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12 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

This schematic shows the railroad crossings remaining as-is under the freeway, but that can always change.

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/get-involved/hou/sh35-i610/040618-schematic2.pdf

Ooh, that's not good. Some remarks that come to mind:

- The light rail yard essentially forces a right-turn-only out to the southbound frontage road rather than do something sensible like connecting it to Mykawa. 

- The highway would reduce visibility for the troubling railroad crossings and make it difficult to revamp the crossing.

- The rerouting of Wayside south of 610 means that the rest of South Wayside's extension down to Beltway 8 will never happen.

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27 minutes ago, IronTiger said:

Ooh, that's not good. Some remarks that come to mind:

- The light rail yard essentially forces a right-turn-only out to the southbound frontage road rather than do something sensible like connecting it to Mykawa. 

- The highway would reduce visibility for the troubling railroad crossings and make it difficult to revamp the crossing.

- The rerouting of Wayside south of 610 means that the rest of South Wayside's extension down to Beltway 8 will never happen.

 

considering the plan is pretty much a freeway down the same corridor, there would be less traffic on that road anyway.

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  • The title was changed to Spur 5 Extension- Future Highway 35 In Alvin
  • 8 months later...

City Official 1: Hey. What's all this land doing between those houses and the railway.

City Official 2: ROW we own apparently. We've had it for ages. Was supposed to be for that spur.

City Official 1: I got an idea. Why not extend it to 610?!

City Official 2: Why not? That is totally like a brilliant idea, and an excellent use to tax payer money to extend a spur by a few miles. You grab the plans. I'll grab the shovels!

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7 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

I actually prefer vanilla, Augie, oh the irony!

Some people do prefer vanilla, but there's room for both, my friend.  Chocolate and vanilla can coexist in harmony.  And when you mix them, that's yummy, too.

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6 minutes ago, august948 said:

Some people do prefer vanilla, but there's room for both, my friend.  Chocolate and vanilla can coexist in harmony.  And when you mix them, that's yummy, too.

Now you’re talking, Augie! I’d say I converted you but I know you are talking from experience!

Love ya brother! I’ll be your Vice President on a mixed ticket.

 

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7 hours ago, Luminare said:

City Official 1: Hey. What's all this land doing between those houses and the railway.

City Official 2: ROW we own apparently. We've had it for ages. Was supposed to be for that spur.

City Official 1: I got an idea. Why not extend it to 610?!

City Official 2: Why not? That is totally like a brilliant idea, and an excellent use to tax payer money to extend a spur by a few miles. You grab the plans. I'll grab the shovels!

Lumnaire: Decentralize permitting for efficiency. Cuz … things? Still not sure on the rationale for that one. But what a privileged position to think you know better … it’s easier that way, after all 🤔 

Edited by mattyt36
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6 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

Now you’re talking, Augie! I’d say I converted you but I know you are talking from experience!

Love ya brother! I’ll be your Vice President on a mixed ticket.

 

Sorry, but this is a close as I ever want to get to a political career...

3146056bce0232379538cbd9cb5bfc42--classi

How about a mixed drink instead?

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9 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

Lumnaire: Decentralize permitting for efficiency. Cuz … things? Still not sure on the rationale for that one. But what a privileged position to think you know better … it’s easier that way, after all 🤔 

Sounds to me like a shovel ready way to build back better. 

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14 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

When this extension is complete to Griggs, is it going to remain Spur 5 or is it going to be signed SH35? 

It sounds like it will be signed SH35 according to the work document posted above

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On 4/16/2022 at 12:35 AM, hindesky said:

From the YouTube video it ends at Dixie Dr.

so I guess most of the ROW acquisition is outside the loop. looking at the google maps satellite view they've already acquired most of the homes a long time ago. it looks like there's also a number of businesses as well.

I am curious how this project accomplishes any of the things it is stating it will accomplish?

  • accommodate regional population growth (what is the defined region, and how does this accommodate that?)
  • reduced traffic congestion within project area (again, what is the project area defined, and since when do freeways reduce congestion?)
  • increase north/south mobility.
  • increase hurricane evacuation capacity.

unless the freeway is going to be expanded to connect to BW8 and beyond, I don't see how this can accommodate regional growth, or north/south mobility, or hurricane evacuation capacity.

thanks to induced demand whatever congestion they reduce on day one of the project being open will be back within 3-5 years.

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@samagon I have a friend whose in laws lived in Pearland south of Broadway where all the lots are multi acre lots. 20 years ago he mentioned that the Hwy 35 was planned to go through the area and some of the neighbors a few houses down would lose their property for the right of way. Don't know if that is still the route though. I would suspect it would be alongside the railroad/Mykawa and maybe merge with the current Hwy 35 at some point and eventually end up in the Alvin area.

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1 hour ago, samagon said:

so I guess most of the ROW acquisition is outside the loop. looking at the google maps satellite view they've already acquired most of the homes a long time ago. it looks like there's also a number of businesses as well.

I am curious how this project accomplishes any of the things it is stating it will accomplish?

  • accommodate regional population growth (what is the defined region, and how does this accommodate that?)
  • reduced traffic congestion within project area (again, what is the project area defined, and since when do freeways reduce congestion?)
  • increase north/south mobility.
  • increase hurricane evacuation capacity.

unless the freeway is going to be expanded to connect to BW8 and beyond, I don't see how this can accommodate regional growth, or north/south mobility, or hurricane evacuation capacity.

thanks to induced demand whatever congestion they reduce on day one of the project being open will be back within 3-5 years.

Worst case scenario it's an alternate for UH students coming from the south and southwest.  Plus a shortcut into downtown.  They've already got the row, might as well go ahead and build it.  What's the real problem here?

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My guess, the main reason its not being extended to Beltway 8 is because of the expensive ROW acquisition it would necessitate; there are multiple neighborhoods on both sides of the train tracks, and something is going to have to get taken out to get it to Beltway 8. By extending it to 610, they are offering an alternate way for people living in South Central Houston and those coming from the loop to get to downtown without forcing them to go all the way to I-45.

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2 hours ago, august948 said:

Worst case scenario it's an alternate for UH students coming from the south and southwest.  Plus a shortcut into downtown.  They've already got the row, might as well go ahead and build it.  What's the real problem here?

I don't have a problem with it, overall the cost to build is really low because most of the ROW is already there. access from one side of the ROW to the other is already severely limited because of the RR, so aside from having a freeway in their backyards, this really won't affect the local community.

I just have a hard time understanding the stated reasons for doing it.

but I guess the actual answer of "we already own 99% of the needed ROW, and we have some extra concrete laying around, so why not?" isn't good enough, so they have to say that this is going to help with hurricane evacuations, and regional mobility.

I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that I have a hard time seeing how adding a 4 mile stretch of freeway between an already clogged i45 and an already clogged 610 loop is going to relieve any congestion?

other recently completed projects in the very near area give me pause that this is going to achieve the outlined goals at all, reference this thread 

 

Edited by samagon
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Sounds like Sammy is arguing for this to go ahead and be extended all the way to Alvin with separate ingress and egress to downtown so that it is more effective at achieving its goals.

Consider me . . . wholly ONBOARD!!!!!  What a great new way to get to HOU!

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33 minutes ago, samagon said:

I don't have a problem with it, overall the cost to build is really low because most of the ROW is already there. access from one side of the ROW to the other is already severely limited because of the RR, so aside from having a freeway in their backyards, this really won't affect the local community.

I just have a hard time understanding the stated reasons for doing it.

but I guess the actual answer of "we already own 99% of the needed ROW, and we have some extra concrete laying around, so why not?" isn't good enough, so they have to say that this is going to help with hurricane evacuations, and regional mobility.

I mean, I guess what I'm saying is that I have a hard time seeing how adding a 4 mile stretch of freeway between an already clogged i45 and an already clogged 610 loop is going to relieve any congestion?

other recently completed projects in the very near area give me pause that this is going to achieve the outlined goals at all, reference this thread 

 

The stated reasons look like boilerplate language for pretty much any road project in the metro area.  This is going to take some of the pressure off I45 and 288 from the south side and give an alternate route into and out of downtown (and UH) from the south loop.  It seems like low hanging fruit that should have been done long ago.

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