TXK

Page 22 of the Goal Park Master Plan shows a raised median on Walker and a few other raised curbs at that intersection for the bike/ped crossing across Emancipation into the park. Calls it a EHRA Safe Crossing and I don't know what that means, but the Toucan picture looks like the right idea.

My understanding is this basically maintains the exits/entrances to Pease, Jefferson, Allen, etc. on that side of downtown without them being directly off the 45 main through lanes like they are now. Hopefully that reduces speeds/noise over there? Probably one of the better designs they could've used to keep connectivity with downtown.

But to your larger point, reducing the visual prominence of these highways was why I was hoping for a teardown of the Pierce Elevated.

I really like how this looks at street level driving from the south across the bayou and over the trees. Do projects like this generally include road repairs? Jensen is getting to be in rough shape between this and East River (also seemingly very narrow lanes across the bayou but that's a separate issue).

Well that would be immensely disappointing. I have a hard time thinking what about the new intersection design would be objectionable, though I get people don't generally like construction and/or change.

The trail along the bayou will eventually be extended and run a block away from it, and it's only a couple of blocks from the Austin St bikeway already. Plus with all the discussion of a potential entertainment/mixed use district around Minute Maid as well as potential improved connectivity from the 45 project, seems to be trending towards more development on that side of town, which I agree is nothing special at the moment. Probably not the worst bet to make on the future of downtown, all things considered.

6 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Yeah, you can't see it in the picture, but they've installed a bike signal (not functional yet) and a "No Right On Red" sign as well.

I'd be curious if there's any data on how effective No Turn on Red signs are - it seems like drivers ignore them more than most other signs (except maybe yield/stop for pedestrians in crosswalks). I've noticed it happen most along the Austin St bikeway downtown but have even seen it in other cities as well.

Couldn't get a picture but there was a substantial fire at this building sometime in the last day. It looked like it spread to the house behind it as well.

It almost seemed slightly harder to cross Heights here (both Sat AM and again at rush hour this afternoon) because cars slowing down cause them to take longer to clear out of the way and then a line of cars can get slightly backed up. I assume the answer will be that cars are supposed to yield? But I do not have enough confidence in that to give that a try anytime soon. I'm sure it will be fine after a transition period though, and otherwise have been loving the biking upgrades, just found it a little funny.

On 4/1/2022 at 3:55 PM, hindesky said:

Get ready for the construction. Plan for delays and alternate routes.

Architect/Plan Engineers- https://gaugeengineering.com

 

Did this actually start in November? It doesn't seem like much has changed at this intersection other than the work on the Mill.

There also appears to be a truck under there, I wonder how that could've happened

I'm really surprised they are building this with the parking right on Cavalcade. Have to imagine it would look nicer and be safer to park behind the building since it's a fairly busy street.

They're redoing the intersections along the MKT trail to add the street name in the concrete on each side of the street and remove the bollards in the center of the trail. Looked about halfway done earlier today and the finished ones looked great, it's a nice design for improving wayfinding for people using the trail.

On 11/24/2022 at 4:32 AM, Big E said:

I'm not sure what you are trying to prove. The freeway is already there. You can see the current alignment in the picture. They are just moving over not even a mile.

I think the argument, at least in the context of the bayou greenway, is that the new alignment cuts into existing green space along the bayou and removing the current alignment between I-45 and Elysian won't add much green space back because there are parking lots/streets underneath I-10 already, unless they're going to be removing some of those. I can anticipate a similar argument for the Pierce Elevated - if a park is built there, it would either be on top of the highway, so the existing concrete structure is still there, or it'd be limited/broken up by all of the perpendicular streets. I'm not sure if those arguments have been made in a very clear way by anyone involved, but that would be my good faith interpretation.

I hope that this project proceeds because the highways around downtown are a mess but even though I think it will be a net positive for city, I can respect that every change may not be a positive one. Loss of green space is a tough trade off for any development project, not to mention one this size. I also can barely keep up with this project on HAIF so I sympathize with the average person trying to process all of the information (and am very impressed how all of the rest of you are able to keep up with this so well!).

Didn't get a picture when I went by yesterday but the 6th St building already looks really nice and is a great addition to the bayou trail.

On 10/6/2022 at 7:07 PM, bookey23 said:

Anyone know if there's a plan for the huge swath of dirt alongside the MTK trail, which I assume is currently being used as a path for heavy machinery? I don't expect anything too groundbreaking there, but it would be great if they added some benches and some trees, since they have a lot of room to work with. I walked on the MTK trail the other day at peak heat and it was scorching without any trees on that side of the path.

They've planted several trees along the trail at the end closest to the bridge, but the end closer to Frasier was still dirt when I went by last weekend. If there wasn't a parking lot on Studemont, I would've thought it'd be a good place for neighborhood trailhead parking.

2 hours ago, s3mh said:

Angela's Oven (down to just Saturday morning)

 

Now Sunday morning as well! But maybe with a limited menu, I'm not positive

Looks like all the concrete is poured and there's a line of sod all the way down the trail. They were watering the sod when I rode by this morning. I also believe I crossed 4 trail counters on the White Oak and MKT trails, would this be them trying to get a traffic baseline before this segment opens?

Can't wait for this to be done, hopefully this works as intended and we can get some more roundabouts at some of the other annoying/unsafe intersections out there. Looking at you, Main/Studewood/Cavalcade.

3 hours ago, Treeves2 said:

They could do a lot with that area if they pedestrianized that street to make it more walkable. Tons of activity already on foot but not very welcoming. 

They're redoing all of the sidewalks as part of the Metro Boost project, which will hopefully help with that.

These feel very similar to the buildings at the Farmer's Market, which is a good thing imo to have a somewhat consistent look for the area. I'm glad the parking is behind the building, because the Gibbs/Service/Link/Airline intersections + people turning into the Farmer's Market + large trucks on the street already make this part of Airline pretty messy sometimes. Don't know what could be done to fix it, but I'm not confident it will be able to handle increasing traffic very well as this area continues to grow. Regardless, this looks like it could be a great development once it's done.

EEMH will be expanding over the next couple years to include a biotech campus, manufacturing accelerator, and some quality of life improvements (dining, parking garage, day care, even apartments) according to this document on their website: East-End-Maker-Hub-Expansion-Projects.pdf (eastendmakerhub.org) The expansions will mostly be on the other side of Navigation, but they're also planning to add more around the current warehouse space as well. Some of the tenant renovations of their units into labs/offices are starting to look great as well.

EXPANSION PROJECTS (1).pdf

1 hour ago, crock said:

the neighborhood should be able to BOO this architect out of existence.  Putting the parking lot exit/entrance AT the trail like that?  total dick move by someone who apparently never bothered to visit the spot. 

Crossing White Oak can be tough at times because of the cars parked on the street right on the white lines of the crossing which really limit visibility as you approach - can't imagine that this will help that situation.

Back in 2019 or so, there was talk by people in the Rangers organization that a train route through Arlington with a stop at the stadiums could be a possibility once the HSR station in Dallas either was approved or was built, don't recall the exact specifics. I would love to be able to take a train from Houston to any of the big DFW cities, especially for big sporting events. I have seen TRE trains completely packed on multiple occasions but don't know how the ridership was overall, but hopefully there's a market there.