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I-45 Rebuild (North Houston Highway Improvement Project)


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2 minutes ago, Ross said:

Those times don't equate to what would happen if all of the through traffic was rerouted to 610. Without adding lanes all the way around the Loop, you would likely see delays of 30 minutes or more, and that's ignoring the impact on traffic from 45 and 59 that take the Loop to the Galleria.

 

Taking the Grand Parkway to get around Houston would be pretty close to an extra 40 miles, perhaps more.

considering there's no qualitative analysis that would show how traffic would be affected, and considering that any scenario that removed the ring from downtown would result in a wider version of 610, you are making assumptions of the worst case scenario, which is fine.

 

no one would ever consider 99 as a bypass.

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20 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

 

There might be a case to be made for your plan, but tearing down the Embarcadero does nothing to support it. The Embarcadero was not a through-freeway, it was little more than an extended exit ramp; same for the Central Freeway.

 

The better comparison is the no-build on 95 north through DC. The Beltway is a beast, but the only real choke point is the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

 

I also don't think replacement of the Ship Channel bridge is all that much of an issue. It's nearing the end of its service life already, and will almost certainly be replaced within the next 25 years.

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10 hours ago, Triton said:

New schematics are out:

 

http://www.ih45northandmore.com/DesignSchematics.aspx

 

Edit: if this truly is the "update", I am incredibly disappointed. Next to zero percent of months of community input was implemented. I'll explain more when I'm back from my trip. 

 

Interesting.... First Ward would get  an 'Aesthetic Wall' against the majority of the new ROW... Wonder what an aesthetic wall is...

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54 minutes ago, rechlin said:

The new plan still shows the train tracks by the jail and UHD.  I wonder if the plan to move those is dead?

I honestly don't see much change at all. 

Can anyone point out any significant changes? Not saying there aren't any, I just don't see them. 

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Yes, I definitely see some very minor changes in Segment 3, but not much (I didn't look at the other segments).

 

The ROW for IH-69 under Montrose is now narrower so they won't have to rebuilt the already-new Montrose bridge.  Slightly less of the 527 spur will be rebuilt.  The ramp from Hamilton to 288 southbound is reconfigured.  The ramp from IH-45 southbound to IH-10 westbound is slightly shifted.  The Sabine Street bridge is no longer being shown as being rebuilt.

 

Also, the bridges over the freeways now all show wide sidewalks that weren't indicated before, which mostly doesn't seem to affect much except for a slight reconfiguration of Allen Parkway at the 45 spur, along with a new sidewalk going along the spur there too.

 

 

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From Dec. 16th. The state will be doing a land swap with Mexican Consulate which will be in the path of the 59 portion that will be put underground. If anyone has a business journal sub could you please look into the story and see if there is anything more in there that is relevant?

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/12/16/texas-mexican-consulate-to-swap-land-in-houston-as.html

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20 hours ago, Luminare said:

From Dec. 16th. The state will be doing a land swap with Mexican Consulate which will be in the path of the 59 portion that will be put underground. If anyone has a business journal sub could you please look into the story and see if there is anything more in there that is relevant?

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/12/16/texas-mexican-consulate-to-swap-land-in-houston-as.html

 

Quote

The Texas Transportation Commission and the Consulate of the United Mexican States in Houston have reached a deal to swap land to make way for a major highway project, according to commission documents and the Houston Chronicle.

The Mexican Consulate currently is located at 4506 Caroline St., adjacent to the San Jacinto Street entrance to Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 just south of Midtown. It will move to a roughly 3-acre site in Westchase currently owned by the state of Texas. That site is near the intersection of Richmond Avenue and Rogerdale Road, just outside of Beltway 8, per the documents and the Chronicle.

Consulate spokeswoman Valeria Ramirez Siller told the Chronicle the move is slated to occur next year. The consulate will have a larger building at its new location, which is within a mile or two of consulate or embassy offices for several other countries.

The Texas Department of Transportation wanted to obtain the consulate's current site in order to facilitate its massive North Houston Highway Improvement Project. The $7 billion project focuses on the downtown loop (including portions of interstates 10, 45 and 69), I-45 between downtown and the 610 Loop, and I-45 north from the 610 Loop to Beltway 8. The project is controversial — in part because TxDOT estimates it will need to acquire 162 single-family homes, 643 multifamily units and 508 public housing units, the Texas Tribune reports. The project is expected to disproportionately affect communities of color, per the Tribune.

 

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6 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

 

What were you hoping to see? 

The big one involves N Main. The city actually reached out to TXDOT first, even before the community meetings, that they were concerned with the lack of both an off and on ramp just north of N Main. TXDOT said they would likely need to remove the Cottage St Bridge for the ramps to work. Since N Main is a major thoroughfare, they valued that connection over Cottage... That was the final plan I heard which was just a few months ago. What happened between that and these schematics, I'm not sure. 

 

Next is the lack of sound barriers on the Northside side. The entire Woodland Heights is getting the sound barrier and only a very small sliver on the other side. With that much community input, plus from the superneighborhood group, I'm surprised we still didn't see anything. 

 

 

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I have two thoughts that I've been mulling:

1) Considering how long its taken 288 and 610 to finish various projects (Post Oak exit says hello), is it fair to worry about the length of time this construction will take? This is probably going to take forever and a day to do during a time period where Houston is finally experiencing the type of densifying development growth you'd expect out of a city so large. Maybe do a smaller phase to see how that goes and what disruption that brings? I have zero confidence in any timelines that have been put out.

 

2) But then again, I do see the benefits of giving easier access to downtown from various suburbs. I feel like TxDot's selling point to why this works, to me, is Klyde Warren Park being the game changer for Dallas. This whole project change so much of what is Houston that it almost gives one anxiety to think about a project this big. However, Klyde Warren worked because of how disconnected the area towards Elm street and the farmer's market was getting from Downtown Dallas. There was no cohesion, and the thing that burying did was bring those communities together, let people who worked in Downtown (like myself back then) let out a sigh of relief that they weren't working in this barren concrete wasteland of excessively priced food and Concrete Cowboys, and partially shift the homeless away from that part of DT to make people feel safer about living there (and people certainly started moving into those condos and apartments since then). Burying a freeway and creating a huge park did all of that for DT Dallas. But if you don't get the parks, or the capped areas aren't utilized in a non-car centric fashion, then haven't you lost a significant portion of why this is worth doing? 

Edited by X.R.
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On 12/30/2019 at 12:32 PM, X.R. said:

I have two thoughts that I've been mulling:

1) Considering how long its taken 288 and 610 to finish various projects (Post Oak exit says hello), is it fair to worry about the length of time this construction will take? This is probably going to take forever and a day to do during a time period where Houston is finally experiencing the type of densifying development growth you'd expect out of a city so large. Maybe do a smaller phase to see how that goes and what disruption that brings? I have zero confidence in any timelines that have been put out.

 

2) But then again, I do see the benefits of giving easier access to downtown from various suburbs. I feel like TxDot's selling point to why this works, to me, is Klyde Warren Park being the game changer for Dallas. This whole project change so much of what is Houston that it almost gives one anxiety to think about a project this big. However, Klyde Warren worked because of how disconnected the area towards Elm street and the farmer's market was getting from Downtown Dallas. There was no cohesion, and the thing that burying did was bring those communities together, let people who worked in Downtown (like myself back then) let out a sigh of relief that they weren't working in this barren concrete wasteland of excessively priced food and Concrete Cowboys, and partially shift the homeless away from that part of DT to make people feel safer about living there (and people certainly started moving into those condos and apartments since then). Burying a freeway and creating a huge park did all of that for DT Dallas. But if you don't get the parks, or the capped areas aren't utilized in a non-car centric fashion, then haven't you lost a significant portion of why this is worth doing? 

 

if we use the big dig as an example. it will cost about 2.5x as much as expected and it will take about 2.5x as long as predicted.

 

who really knows. 

 

this project doesn't really give better access to downtown, and it doesn't give better access to people moving from one part of the central area of town to another part of the central area of town. the purpose of this project is to allow people to move from one side of town to the other faster, and make millions for the property owners along the pierce elevated.

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On 1/9/2020 at 12:02 PM, ljchou said:

Maybe irrelevant to this specific thread, but I heard that Tout Suite has "every intention of remaining in the East End" after the expansion.

I hope so, their food is amazing.

 

But such a weird vibe with the giant window they have overlooking the super homeless camp under the freeway.

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Why go then? 

Just stay home and read about it later then you don't have to be disappointed or feel like you have wasted your time. 

Thats why I record sporting events now.

I got tired of the disappointment. I just catch the score and if I like the outcome I might watch some of it.

If not I don't waste any time.

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1 hour ago, bobruss said:

Why go then? 

Just stay home and read about it later then you don't have to be disappointed or feel like you have wasted your time. 

Thats why I record sporting events now.

I got tired of the disappointment. I just catch the score and if I like the outcome I might watch some of it.

If not I don't waste any time.

Because I represent my area. And for some less well off and older folks who aren't that connected to the internet, the only way of getting news are during neighborhood events through people like me. That's why the last round of talks with TXDOT came across as so promising, when it sounded like TXDOT was actually pouring over the city's suggestions that we saw in renderings last year... and then we get the December "update" from TXDOT and literally next to nothing had changed. The only benefit I see coming out of this next meeting is to represent my community yet again and ask, what happened? What happened to all the things "we [TXDOT] are looking at" and where did all that progress go?

 

The community isn't even asking for any difficult things. They understood that in highway projects, there's a good chance homes and businesses get torn down. People get relocated.. it's really the very nature of these expansions. And during these TXDOT meetings, people are usually yelling "racists!" and all these other things because, yes, this expansion does affect a lot of low income areas. But see, that's not where I am coming from.... there's A LOT of smaller changes that can be made to make this project a success, with the city presenting truly incredibly ideas in those city planning sessions last year.... but TXDOT has not agreed to implement a single one of them. They are always just things "we are looking at" and now that this is THE final year to say anything, I felt like nothing has really moved the needle.

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It sounds like you answered your own question.

On 1/24/2020 at 11:32 AM, Triton said:

 

I feel like I've wasted my time going to every single one of these.... and yet here I am thinking wasting my time again.

 

13 minutes ago, Triton said:

Because I represent my area. And for some less well off and older folks who aren't that connected to the internet, the only way of getting news are during neighborhood events through people like me. That's why the last round of talks with TXDOT came across as so promising, when it sounded like TXDOT was actually pouring over the city's suggestions that we saw in renderings last year... and then we get the December "update" from TXDOT and literally next to nothing had changed. The only benefit I see coming out of this next meeting is to represent my community yet again and ask, what happened? What happened to all the things "we [TXDOT] are looking at" and where did all that progress go?

 

The community isn't even asking for any difficult things. They understood that in highway projects, there's a good chance homes and businesses get torn down. People get relocated.. it's really the very nature of these expansions. And during these TXDOT meetings, people are usually yelling "racists!" and all these other things because, yes, this expansion does affect a lot of low income areas. But see, that's not where I am coming from.... there's A LOT of smaller changes that can be made to make this project a success, with the city presenting truly incredibly ideas in those city planning sessions last year.... but TXDOT has not agreed to implement a single one of them. They are always just things "we are looking at" and now that this is THE final year to say anything, I felt like nothing has really moved the needle.

Then go, and make a difference.

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