wildthangjim Posted December 12, 2021 Share Posted December 12, 2021 HCTRA instituted hands-free tolling (and closed all the cash lanes) on the Sam Houston Tollway at the start of the pandemic in March 2020. As of today (12 Dec 2021) at the plaza nearest my house, just north of Westheimer, traffic is restricted to 3 EZTag lanes and one lane on the far right for those just entering the highway. Traffic backs up in both directions for most of every workday due to this restriction. I've not seen anything about when (or whether) they plan to open the closed lanes. I don't know the economics of it, but it would be great if they could just take out the tollbooths and go on using the pay by mail/EZ Tag system they've been using for the past 18 months. It would be nice to get some relief from these ongoing bottlenecks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxConcrete Posted December 13, 2021 Share Posted December 13, 2021 There is preconstruction (i.e. design) work in progress to get rid of the legacy toll plazas on the original 3 sections of the Sam Houston Tollway. I agree, they are a bottleneck which cause a slowdown when traffic reaches a certain level. I recall at least one Harris County Commissions Court agenda item for consultant contracts for this work. It was not recent, probably 6-18 months ago. If you really want to find out more, you'll need to search through Harris County Commissioners Court agendas and you should find mention of this work. https://agenda.harriscountytx.gov/Archive.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildthangjim Posted December 13, 2021 Author Share Posted December 13, 2021 23 hours ago, MaxConcrete said: There is preconstruction (i.e. design) work in progress to get rid of the legacy toll plazas on the original 3 sections of the Sam Houston Tollway. I agree, they are a bottleneck which cause a slowdown when traffic reaches a certain level. I recall at least one Harris County Commissions Court agenda item for consultant contracts for this work. It was not recent, probably 6-18 months ago. If you really want to find out more, you'll need to search through Harris County Commissioners Court agendas and you should find mention of this work. https://agenda.harriscountytx.gov/Archive.aspx Thanks for the information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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