I-45 Rebuild (North Houston Highway Improvement Project)

[pablog]

3 hours ago, wilcal said:

Some new renderings were presented at the open house last night. They said that they would be up on the Houston Planning website by the end of the week.

 

Updated timelines: Initial concept development through summer '19. There's a TxDOT deadline then where they have to know about trees on bridges, etc. Design work begins then and has a deadline of Dec 19. Construction from TxDOT begins 2020 or 2021. 

 

Big question is keeping/demoing the Pierce Elevated. They are still unsure, but the renderings today showed it in place. Talked with one of the presenter's associates and they said that they have had some engineering work done to determine the feasibility and it looks very good. Land swap between the city and TxDOT looks good. He said they've even looked at the possibility of using the concrete barriers to hold in soil to plant trees/grass and engineering said it was workable. Would likely need "stakeholders" to help with the development. Meaning commercial spaces below and on top to help develop their portion. He made it sound like the city may be up for renting or selling part of the land that they receive for further development to hug the elevated park. 

 

I somehow forgot to take a picture, but the Pierce would dump into a large park underneath 45 where Hutchins is approximate. They had some decent renderings of this.

 

They're now planning a pedestrian/bike only bridge to connect Polk into downtown.

 

I think we knew this, but full Montrosification of the 3 Third Ward bridges: https://i.imgur.com/tBwGZnU.jpg

 

As you can see on the renderings, adding separated bike/pedestrian lanes and they want to integrate trees and/or grass on the bridge.

 

New render of the EaDo Cap. Pretty spectacular imho even though BBVA gets the shaft on how big it is (it's the same length as MMP). Elevated walkways to GRB built as hotels are built and needed them. Some type of outdoor concert venue towards the south end of the cap. 

 

https://i.imgur.com/F1ll4Oq.jpg

 

"Program Areas" of the cap:

 

https://i.imgur.com/IMtlgqc.jpg

 

Train-themed park area on the cap. Speaker talked about the history of trains in that area, wants to integrate that into that portion of the cap. 

 

https://i.imgur.com/5s2nAyn.jpg

 

"Trailhead Overlook Hill" is a key entry into the parks system. Rent a bike and explore, etc. Several blocks of elevated pedestrian/bike highway. Big part of the green loop initiative. I talked with the associate about how the goal is to have as few as 10 road crossings for bikes/pedestrians for an entire loop of downtown. 

 

https://i.imgur.com/70H1eKe.jpg

 

The latest image of the NE corner:

 

https://i.imgur.com/VhbaXoJ.jpg

 

Those are detention ponds in the center. Think we knew pretty much all of this. 

 

Frostown Crossing portion utilizes existing historical railway as part of the elevated bikeway.

 

https://i.imgur.com/tUtb9ju.jpg

 

 

I was there too and the projects looked amazing! The only part I felt is forgotten is the Third Ward/Midtown area. I don’t feel that pretty bridges are enough to connect two neighborhoods. I suggested another cap park in that area. 

[cspwal]

5 minutes ago, pablog said:

I was there too and the projects looked amazing! The only part I felt is forgotten is the Third Ward/Midtown area. I don’t feel that pretty bridges are enough to connect two neighborhoods. I suggested another cap park in that area. 

 

Perhaps a park between Tuam and Elgin?  There's already Baldwin park in midtown and Emancipation park in 3rd ward; having the cap park there would make the whole area feel like one large park type area with houses in the park.  They could connect it with a redo of Tuam and Elgin with trees etc

[Houston19514]

Very exciting!   Thanks for the thorough report, wilcal.   Whose open house was this?

[wilcal]

14 minutes ago, cspwal said:

 

Perhaps a park between Tuam and Elgin?  There's already Baldwin park in midtown and Emancipation park in 3rd ward; having the cap park there would make the whole area feel like one large park type area with houses in the park.  They could connect it with a redo of Tuam and Elgin with trees etc

 

21 minutes ago, pablog said:

I was there too and the projects looked amazing! The only part I felt is forgotten is the Third Ward/Midtown area. I don’t feel that pretty bridges are enough to connect two neighborhoods. I suggested another cap park in that area. 

 

Ooo, a cap park between Tuam and Elgin would be great. 

 

My concerns are that the bike lanes on the 3rd ward bridges look great, but what are they going to connect to? I think the bike plan doesn't provide for any serious connectiviy (which is crap).

 

I also didn't like the extreme focus on biking but only within the green loop. I feel that there's no easy way to go east/west into downtown. Anybody that is in the third or eado and wants to go to MMP/Market Square Park/etc is gonna have to deal with some awkwardness. The proposal evidently means sharrows on Capital/Texas where the light rail runs. Just a death trap dealing with traffic in that area on a bike with suburbanites trying to handle being in downtown. 

[wilcal]

3 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Very exciting!   Thanks for the thorough report, wilcal.   Whose open house was this?

 

City of Houston Planning Department. They have two more scheduled. This one focused on the EaDo portion. 

 

North side is next Tuesday: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-open-house-nhhip-vision-opportunities-for-the-north-side-tickets-49158298795?aff=erelexpmlt

 

West/South side is Thurs after next: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-open-house-nhhip-vision-opportunities-for-the-west-side-tickets-49158359978?aff=erelexpmlt

[Houston19514]

Just now, wilcal said:

 

City of Houston Planning Department. They have two more scheduled. This one focused on the EaDo portion. 

 

North side is next Tuesday: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-open-house-nhhip-vision-opportunities-for-the-north-side-tickets-49158298795?aff=erelexpmlt

 

West/South side is Thurs after next: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/public-open-house-nhhip-vision-opportunities-for-the-west-side-tickets-49158359978?aff=erelexpmlt

 

Cool.  Thanks.

[wilcal]

I'll probably be able to go to the West/South one if any HAIFers want to say hi. 

 

There was a pretty good crowd last night of about 100 people. Most were supportive and excited. I was standing next to one guy when he found out that TXDOT would need his property though and he was bummed. 

 

They did a 10-minute intro, 20-minute overview of the entire project, and then you could wander around and talk to experts/give feedback on different portions. Everyone was very knowledgable. 

[intencity77]

As an East End resident and home owner my concern with this project is that priority for the development of the park atop the cap never happens or takes many years or decades to develop. If the park had been part of the proposed freeway project or already fully funded and more than just a “vision”, I would be way more supportive of the rerouting project as a whole. But for now I don't know if they are just throwing out beautiful, feel good renderings to soften the extremeness of the whole freeway retouting project or if their intentions are for this to come to fruition sooner rather than later. I just need more assurance that the freeway cap isn’t going to be an empty, ugly eyesore for years to come. 

[pablog]

23 minutes ago, intencity77 said:

As an East End resident and home owner my concern with this project is that priority for the development of the park atop the cap never happens or takes many years or decades to develop. If the park had been part of the proposed freeway project or already fully funded and more than just a “vision”, I would be way more supportive of the rerouting project as a whole. But for now I don't know if they are just throwing out beautiful, feel good renderings to soften the extremeness of the whole freeway retouting project or if their intentions are for this to come to fruition sooner rather than later. I just need more assurance that the freeway cap isn’t going to be an empty, ugly eyesore for years to come. 

It is more than just a vision. I would say it is basically a close to done deal. When I suggested the cap park between Midtown/Third Ward, they responded that it is harder there because there aren’t any large companies making donations similar to the EaDo cap. That to me sounded like the cap park idea has received lots of investment from companies in Downtown. 

 

Also, they mentioned that the first phase of the project will be downtown because that is where the heaviest traffic is, and their goal is to finish construction 2026 for the downtown section. 

 

Northern sections will come later 

[CaptainJilliams]

Fantastic renderings, thank you for the post!

[BeerNut]

1 hour ago, wilcal said:

I'll probably be able to go to the West/South one if any HAIFers want to say hi.  

 

I'll also try to make it to this one.

[Triton]

3 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Very exciting!   Thanks for the thorough report, wilcal.   Whose open house was this?

It was an open house that I only learned of from my rep (attached screenshot).

 

Also, it's hard to tell... is this schematic wilcal posted showing that Runnels St is actually going to connect to the new McKee St. and Elysian St intersection?

https://i.imgur.com/IMtlgqc.jpg

 

Edit: Oh ok, so it does look like they are maybe connecting Runnels St underneath the bridges but they still have a cul-de-sac before the railroad... so bizarre: https://i.imgur.com/VhbaXoJ.jpg

 

Edit 2: Where did the railroad go next the jail??

 

 

[samagon]

7 hours ago, wilcal said:

 

I feel that there's no easy way to go east/west into downtown. Anybody that is in the third or eado and wants to go to MMP/Market Square Park/etc is gonna have to deal with some awkwardness. The proposal evidently means sharrows on Capital/Texas where the light rail runs. Just a death trap dealing with traffic in that area on a bike with suburbanites trying to handle being in downtown. 

 

overall, this has been my main concern regarding this project.

 

I wish there was a way that Polk could still connect.

 

Well, I also have the same concerns as Intencity77, unfunded means it isn't happening. At least, not until someone comes out and says it's funded.

Edited August 31, 2018 by samagon

[wilcal]

31 minutes ago, samagon said:

 

overall, this has been my main concern regarding this project.

 

I wish there was a way that Polk could still connect.

 

Well, I also have the same concerns as Intencity77, unfunded means it isn't happening. At least, not until someone comes out and says it's funded.

Polk will still connect. Elevated bike/pedestrian only bridge has been added to the proposal. It'll be clear when the new renderings are on the planning site.

 

[wilcal]

7 hours ago, pablog said:

It is more than just a vision. I would say it is basically a close to done deal. When I suggested the cap park between Midtown/Third Ward, they responded that it is harder there because there aren’t any large companies making donations similar to the EaDo cap. That to me sounded like the cap park idea has received lots of investment from companies in Downtown. 

 

Also, they mentioned that the first phase of the project will be downtown because that is where the heaviest traffic is, and their goal is to finish construction 2026 for the downtown section. 

 

Northern sections will come later 

 

I had heard talk of Kinder Foundation being on board. The first speaker said that they wouldn't ask for any money until plans are finalized. 

 

The downtown district are the ones currently paying for these renderings, so I'd imagine they have a good idea what is feasible.

 

They did say that the entire green loop/everything on the map could feasibly take 20 years though.

[Triton]

38 minutes ago, wilcal said:

Polk will still connect. Elevated bike/pedestrian only bridge has been added to the proposal. It'll be clear when the new renderings are on the planning site.

 

This is going to sound so houstonian of me and even as some who bikes all over the city, I think we need Polk to connect vehicle traffic. That area has quite a lot of traffic coming in and out of the convention center, hotels, and Toyota center. I'm sure the traffic will adapt since there will now be a u-turn that wraps back to the other side... Still wish there was a direct connect though. 

[wilcal]

10 hours ago, Triton said:

This is going to sound so houstonian of me and even as some who bikes all over the city, I think we need Polk to connect vehicle traffic. That area has quite a lot of traffic coming in and out of the convention center, hotels, and Toyota center. I'm sure the traffic will adapt since there will now be a u-turn that wraps back to the other side... Still wish there was a direct connect though. 

 

Yeah, I don't really get that either. Was talking with a random guy who bike commutes down Polk from somewhere in the East End and he said traffic can be pretty bad. Tons of buses. 

[Triton]

Definitely appears to be a big update coming... It's hard to see but in this picture they've changed a few things here and there. For example, it looks like there will be feeder roads on both sides (both on the north and south sides) of the upcoming I-45 spur into downtown that will connect and stop at Houston Ave. Earlier, there were feeder lanes on both sides that then stayed to the north after Dallas St and stopped at Houston Ave.

 

They've also now added all the missing links to the Northside that I was worried about...from the Fulton/San Jacinto extension to a few new roads being built where I-10 once stood near UH-D.

 

Here's the before for the feeder lanes I was mentioning

 

 

Updated (hard to see the changes)

 

[MaxConcrete]

Tonight's meeting for the north side was well-attended. I arrived just as the main presentation was ending. COH staff said the meeting materials are online, but I can't find anything.

 

The big news to me was not related to the highway but was the proposed railroad consolidation. See the attached image link. (I was not aware of the railroad proposal until tonight.)

 

In short, the proposal is to combine the two east-west railroads into one corridor by building a new section of railroad from around Main street to Houston Street.

The railroad serving the Amtrack station and going through UHD would be abandoned. The railroad on the "Be Someone" bridge extending west would also be abandoned. The corridor of the "Be Someone" bridge would be replaced by a road for better neighborhood connectivity, which was listed as one of the three main objectives of COH planning. That new road appears to be part of the plan, regardless of whether or not the railroad relocation actually happens.

 

The benefits of the relocation are huge (see items 1 through 8), and the cost should be affordable. I'm thinking that just eliminating the railroad and the need to build a shoofly where the existing railroad crosses IH-10 east of Elysian could save $15-25 million, and maybe another $10 million for the elimination of a shoofly on the "Be Someone" bridge. As listed in bullet 5, the railroad removal would make the North Canal possible.

 

Another project in this area is the bypass canal for White Oak bayou. I think I may have heard about it previously, but it probably has a greater probability of being built post-Harvey.

 

http://dallasfreeways.com/dfwfreeways/Houston/20180904-0013-2000.jpg

 

http://dallasfreeways.com/dfwfreeways/Houston/20180904-0012-2560.jpg

Edited September 5, 2018 by MaxConcrete

[Triton]

12 hours ago, MaxConcrete said:

Tonight's meeting for the north side was well-attended. I arrived just as the main presentation was ending. COH staff said the meeting materials are online, but I can't find anything.

 

The big news to me was not related to the highway but was the proposed railroad consolidation. See the attached image link. (I was not aware of the railroad proposal until tonight.)

 

In short, the proposal is to combine the two east-west railroads into one corridor by building a new section of railroad from around Main street to Houston Street.

The railroad serving the Amtrack station and going through UHD would be abandoned. The railroad on the "Be Someone" bridge extending west would also be abandoned. The corridor of the "Be Someone" bridge would be replaced by a road for better neighborhood connectivity, which was listed as one of the three main objectives of COH planning. That new road appears to be part of the plan, regardless of whether or not the railroad relocation actually happens.

 

The benefits of the relocation are huge (see items 1 through 8), and the cost should be affordable. I'm thinking that just eliminating the railroad and the need to build a shoofly where the existing railroad crosses IH-10 east of Elysian could save $15-25 million, and maybe another $10 million for the elimination of a shoofly on the "Be Someone" bridge. As listed in bullet 5, the railroad removal would make the North Canal possible.

 

Another project in this area is the bypass canal for White Oak bayou. I think I may have heard about it previously, but it probably has a greater probability of being built post-Harvey.

 

http://dallasfreeways.com/dfwfreeways/Houston/20180904-0013-2000.jpg

 

http://dallasfreeways.com/dfwfreeways/Houston/20180904-0012-2560.jpg

 

Ha! I must have seen you there then! 

 

Gotta say, this open house got me really excited about this project, especially the railroad removal proposal and the new Edwards bridge connection over to Burnett St.

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

White Oak Bayou area:

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

Massive new changes:

 

North Houston Highway Improvement Project by Marc longoria, on Flickr

 

Here are the big take-aways which I am sure I am missing a few:

 

• Remove the UPRR railroad through north downtown and add that rail to the existing corridor north of UH-D. This would help against flooding since many sections would not longer need to be below grade for the railroad.

 

• Move the Metro bus depot next to the new I-10/I-45 freeway to have better access to the highway and to also..

 

• Build the North Canal. Out of all the proposals presented tonight, is the one that has funding after the bond passed. The Planning Commission said they want to get the design down first and want people's inputs on the design. They presented several previously proposed since the grand master plan back in 2002.

 

• Build a new connecting bridge from Edwards St to Burnett St over White Oak Bayou.

 

• Build a new connecting street from Bagby to Edwards past the future development at the former Post Office.

 

• Remove the Amtrak station (obviously) since the railroad and Bagby St will replace it.

 

• Build a below grade San Jacinto extension to connect to Fulton on the Northside.

 

• Build many new bike trails and use the existing abandoned railroad crossing in Frostown as a bike/pedestrian bridge.

 

• Build "Garden Bridges" at McKee Bridge and Hardy Bridge over I-10. These would have parks with trees and bike trails. If the railroad is removed, they will be able to add a new street/bridge at Wood St. and also make it a Garden Bridge.

 

 

You covered the meeting pretty well. Only thing to add is that most of these proposals so far do not have funding however after the bond passed, the canal has funding now but they are trying to figure out the best design and where to properly relocate the bus depot.

 

If the city is able to pull this off, especially with the below grade San Jacinto extension to Fulton, this can really provide huge benefits to this side of town and I can see a large wave of development coming to this area in the 2020s.

[Moderators]

Magnificent.

[ADCS]

I hope there's enough foresight that the new RR connection has ROW for triple- or quadruple-tracking to support future commuter service.

[CaptainJilliams]

Awesome news, especially considering the North Canal has the funding. 

[Texasota]

Wait, are they replacing the Amtrak station? The obvious location would be the Burnnett transit center.

[Triton]

26 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Wait, are they replacing the Amtrak station? The obvious location would be the Burnnett transit center.

Yes, but I dont remember a specific relocation spot specified. 

[mollusk]

But it's such an example of mid century brutalist architecture... 

[Triton]

6 minutes ago, mollusk said:

But it's such an example of mid century brutalist architecture... 

How? 

[mollusk]

5 minutes ago, Triton said:

How? 

 

Well, it's a blocky concrete structure, albeit a bit small in scale for true brutalist.

 

Also, it was a tongue in cheek comment.  Somehow I doubt that station's going to get much preservationist love.

[Triton]

7 minutes ago, mollusk said:

 

Well, it's a blocky concrete structure, albeit a bit small in scale for true brutalist.

 

Also, it was a tongue in cheek comment.  Somehow I doubt that station's going to get much preservationist love.

Oh the Amtrak station! Yes, completely agree. I'm all for preservation in this city but I wouldn't protest if they decided to demo that station. 

 

[Triton]

Page appears to be up now: http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/index.html