texan

1 hour ago, thatguysly said:

My understanding is that R&D in the medical field is pretty low in Houston. If anything it is pretty cancer focuses. But to get to the level of say Boston, we need biotech and such to really take off here. I am hoping this will help with that. Though they have schools like MIT around there so not sure if Houston will ever get into robotics to that degree.

Hopefully A&M’s EnMed program will help with the robotics and medical devices side of that.

Texas A&M’s EnMed program (the program this building is mostly used for) will now be housed in the new Intercollegiate School of Engineering Medicine. This will give the partnership a formal institutional home.

https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2021/08/texas-am-university-to-establish-intercollegiate-school-of-engineering-medicine.html

This project means more for Houston as the GAO has denied protests by Blue Origin and Dynetics to invalidate NASA’s contract with SpaceX for the lunar lander program. This rocket will be used for NASA’s next lunar lander.

17 minutes ago, j_cuevas713 said:

I fully support the city on this. The alternatives are so much better than what TxDOT wants to do. They could care less about the community and more about the jobs this will create in the short term. 

Agreed. Hopefully the city and TxDOT converge on their ideas for segment 3. I really do think the city's vision for segment three has the ability to strengthen the urban core of Houston to an incredible degree and give it the ability to become one of the premier urban areas in the country. The new development all of the new parkland would spur is just crazy to think about.

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/east/public-meeting-east-side.pdf

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/north/Public Meeting_North Side_Final Rev.pdf

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/west/presentation-west.pdf

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/midtown/public-open-house-midtown.pdf

1 hour ago, samagon said:

pretty specific question. 

there's a mayor of a pretty populous city that this interstate runs through, which has a lot of neighborhoods in it, that has come out against the approved design of the project.

there's a judge of a pretty populous county that this interstate runs through, which also has a lot of neighborhoods in it, that has also come out against the approved design, has even gone so far as to sue TXDoT over the entire affair.

the National DoT has issued many statements which can be characterized as being against the project.

but you want letters from officials that represent specific neighborhood associations?

heck, based on the previous 2 pages of arguments, can we even consider that a letter penned by the president of a neighborhood association is what the residents of that association want?

It's my understanding that Mayor Turner is against the design of segments 1 and 2, but mostly approves of segment 3 albeit with some modifications. In a presentation to the H-GAC, the city even proposes to move forward now but make the slight changes (mostly parks/greenspace, connections, etc.).

https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/docs_pdfs/Commissioner Ryan - NHHIP - Letter & Technical Appendix.pdf

https://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/docs_pdfs/TPC Presentation April 2020.pdf

Here's a great silhouette of the launch site. The tall object on the far right is the Launch Integration Tower and the tall object in the center is the third test booster.

Orbital Launch Mount stacking (from Elon's Twitter page).

1 hour ago, dfwill said:

I wonder if 6th will ever be connected between waverly and rutland over the reservoir by road or pedestrian bridge or something.  Would be cool to be able to walk down 6th from let's say BLT to here/MKT.

I would just go a block north to the trail. That's the most pedestrian-friendly entrance to MKT anyways.

Are segments 1 and 2 necessarily linked to segment 3? Based on Mayor Turner's letter to Commissioner Ryan (which was based on community feedback) and many comments here, in general, people seem to be okay with and even supportive of just segment 3. After seeing the schematics for segments 1 and 2, I think it bulldozes way too much of the community. My personal opinion is that segment 3 moves forward and smaller improvements are made to segments 1 and 2. Hopefully TxDOT and Harris County can settle the lawsuit by moving forward with segment 3 but redesigning and significantly reducing the number of lanes required for segments 1 and 2.

JSC is building a new Emergency Operations Center to withstand a Cat 5 hurricane. The facility will house primary and redundant hardware for command and control. This will be the home of the center's hurricane rideout team.

https://communityimpact.com/houston/cy-fair/transportation/2021/06/15/texas-central-signs-16b-construction-contract-for-high-speed-rail-project/

$16 billion contract signed with Webuild (former Salini Impregilo) for the design and construction of Texas Central's high speed railway. No word on financing from what I've seen so this just seems to be an updated version of the $14 billion design-build contract signed a couple years ago.

Anyone have info on this? Currently owned by Meldi Construction. The metal building and slab has come down and out. The two houses to the south are now vacant. I'm hoping for a neighborhood bar.

Showroom is now empty.

18 hours ago, talltexan83 said:

Not the most relevant comment, but seeing again that construction costs for the Bayou Greenway Park were about $2 million.........right after I read about the new 59S/610N interchange going for $250+ million.  I know these are entirely different budgets/jurisdictions, but it's wild to think what would be possible if Bayou Greenways had an extra $250 million to spend on construction.  I'd be willing to bet it would have a greater economic impact on the city than a new freeway interchange.

https://houston.culturemap.com/news/city-life/06-01-21-610-loop-ramp-closing-us-59-southwest-freeway-june-3-june-9-txdot/

The Bayou Greenways 2020 project as a whole had a $220 million budget.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/cynthialescalleet/2019/05/30/bayou-greenways-2020-linking-parks-adding-trails-transforming-underused-land-by-houston-waterways/?sh=6196ae175e78

It appears the tuition revenue bond bill died in committee in the Texas Senate. This would've given Texas A&M, MD Anderson, and UT Health $90 million each to support construction of their buildings at TMC3 (among many other university construction projects). These buildings were planned prior to inclusion in HB 1530 so they'll still move forward using PUF money, most likely.

https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=87R&Bill=HB1530

I think the project will move forward in full. The lawsuit by the county and USDOT's pause are just lip service. Segment 3 is already starting.

The section south of Midtown is on track for construction next year.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Metro-set-to-spend-millions-to-make-sure-I-45-16118744.php

The section for the east side of Midtown is labeled as in active procurement on TxDOT's website.

https://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/division/debt/strategic-projects/alternative-delivery/nhhip-seg3.html 

The City of Seabrook is in the process of developing a plan to develop the Old Seabrook District into a "Livable Center". 

Looks like the consensus is either stay the same or more development. Hoping to see this develop into a more urban area. That part of town needs an urban center to give the community as a whole a gathering place instead of just endless suburbia.

It appears this is still moving forward. The master plans have been approved by League City and I created a patchwork map of them. PDF has better resolution.

LC_HugeDevolopment.pdf  

2 minutes ago, Highrise Tower said:

Anyone ever try True Anomaly's beers? Looks like they are now being distributed to HEB and Central Market. It's Memorial Day, I might buy a 4-pack.  Their strawberry and rhubarb sour looks tasty!

http://trueanomalybrewing.com/

True Anomaly is great! The name initially intrigued me because it is space themed (the last of the 6 Keplerian orbital elements). They have a lot of Belgian style beers if I remember correctly, so they add some diversity to the Houston craft beer scene.

7 hours ago, august948 said:

Could be worse...

 

Having a mountain in our city is not something I'd see as worse by any measure.