JLWM8609

Upcoming projects to reduce congestion on northbound I-45 at US59

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/transportation/article/Project-aims-to-untie-I-45-northbound-traffic-knot-5736953.php?cmpid=twitter-premium&t=6220c6aed20519a485

Some suggested this as an idea to reduce traffic on another thread not too long ago.

The buyers of the Weingarten home have been revealed. They will restore the home and expand the kitchen.

http://swamplot.com/buyers-will-restore-weingarten-mansion-expand-kitchen-call-it-home/2014-09-02/

H-GAC is looking for solutions that can be implemented quickly and without adding lanes to improve traffic flow on 59 between BW8 and 288. There will be two meetings at H-GAC on Sept 10th from noon to 2pm, and from 6 to 8pm.

http://www.mysouthwestfreeway.com/get-involved.html

I drive through that interchange almost every day at 6am, tomorrow I will verify whether they are illuminated or not. If so, I'm calling an optometrist right away. The google map shows them during the day, can't see if they are truly lit. Looks like we have another bridge beautification project that has not been kept up with.

I drove back from Centerville last night and I can confirm that they are not illuminated.

Looking at this Google Maps view, you can see that the neon tubing is still there as of April 2014.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.939316,-95.413326,3a,15y,7.5h,119.27t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sU6xFQwua23dq2RLaNRyQMw!2e0

Isn't that house on Oakmont the old Weingarten House?

Nope. The Weingarten house is about a mile and a half away from the one on Oakmont.

The inaugural flight will be LAX-IAH on Sat., Sept. 20.

You have to go on 610 for a short time before you hit 10, then you take 10 east to downtown, then 45 to 288

Alternatively, you can take I-10 E to US 59 S, and then 59 S to 288 when I-45 S is backed up.

What's Bob Nicholas up to these days?

Maintain a safe following distance between you and the car in front of you. People will slam their brakes on the freeway for seemingly no reason.

 Here's a bit of an article quoting one William Lawson, an 85-year-old African American preacher for the Rose of Sharon Baptist Church in Freedmen's Town:

 

%5Bsource%5D

Just a correction. Rev. Lawson is not affiliated with Rose of Sharon Baptist Church. He is the founding pastor of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Third Ward. He was Senior Pastor at Wheeler from 1962 to 2005, and my family has been honored to personally know him over the past five decades.

My crazy car would be an auction police package crown vic with the supercharged 5.4 out of the cobra. talk about a sleeper, people would look at it and assume it was just a cheap transportation box with a fun light on the a pillar, then zoooooooooooom!!! and eventually crash because the suspension is clapped out, but let's not talk about that part, obviously there's still some kinks to work out. Luckily I have time to work this stuff out cause I haven't reached unlimited funds yet.

I like speed and comfort. I'd like to do the same thing, except use a Lincoln Town Car. Seems like every Ford Panther chassis fan can mod a CV (Crown Vic) handed down to them by grandma, or a CVPI (Crown Vic Police Interceptor), but why not a Town Car?  There's just something about a big, fast, American land barge. It's nearly mechanically identical to the Crown Vic save a few bits. Put a 5.4 in it, large front sway bar used in the fleet versions of the Crown Vic, rear sway bar from the Mercury Marauder, stiffer P71 (Crown Vic police interceptor) springs, heavy duty shocks, and you'd have the North American answer to the S65 AMG.

Now the question is, is that a rear bumper, a coffee table, or an ottoman?

 

Those are battering rams! Most US spec MBs from 1974 to 1991 had bumpers that were longer and larger than their Euro spec counterparts due to Federal Regs. Some like the slim Euro look. I like the US look. I guess that's because I'm used to seeing them, and US spec bumpers have saved me from bad Houston drivers a few times in my MBs.

There must be quite a bit of anticipated sales volume in Montgomery County for Mercedes-Benz North America to grant this franchise.

I think that might be the Exxon Mobil effect. More people with the salary to afford new MBs will be moving into the area. I think the E-class may soon become the Toyota Camry of north Harris and south Montgomery Co.

This thread left 288's median and is on I-10 halfway to El Paso.

Turner still has the "Come On In" taint from his 1991 defeat.

 

On Green: he's got some problems regarding how he's handled the City Controller's office.

Speaking of Green, I don't think this will help him if he decides to run.

http://www.chron.com/default/article/Ethics-issues-arise-in-rulings-by-justice-of-the-3798572.php

I just ran across Mr. Holder's obituary in the Chronicle yesterday (just now catching up on the past couple of Sunday papers). I didn't know him personally, but I certainly knew of him. A tremendous loss to the community. What dealership did he used to run? 

It was called Helmut Holder Mercedes-Benz. It opened in September 1964 at the corner of 59 and Fountain View. Sometime along the line, he opened up an independent shop. At his memorial service, there were laminated copies of the Houston Chronicle from the day the dealership opened. I think it was the first MB dealership in Houston. The buildings still stand today. The showroom is still there as a used car dealership, and what I think was once the service area is now the Firehouse Saloon.

Helmut was a rare jewel among mechanics. He worked on my "youngtimer" MBs and it's going to be hard, if not impossible to find a mechanic as thorough and with the know-how that he had. One of the Mercedes Club members told me a story of how he took his 1966 230SL to him. Helmut looked at the floorpan and asked the owner if the car had been to a certain European country, I think it was Switzerland. The owner said yes and asked him how he knew. Apparently, the floorpans had been fixed in a manner that was unique to the bodyman in Switzerland, and Helmut recognized the work.

That is amazing considering it will bring the total in the area to six by my count: Star on Old Katy Road, M-B Houston Greenway on the Southwest Freeway, M-B Sugarland, Alex Rodriguez in League City, M-B Houston North on I-45 at FM 1960 and now in the Woodlands. It seems the last two are pretty close together. There must be quite a bit of anticipated sales volume in Montgomery County for Mercedes-Benz North America to grant this franchise.

 

Star is the only dealership that sells other than the Mercedes-Benz brand; Volvo, Lotus, and Aston-Martin though Alex Rodriguez does retail their Sprinter commercial vehicles (vans).

A. Rod got bought by Group 1 Automotive a few months ago. It was owned by A. Rod and Jerry Glauser. Group 1 came in and cleaned house management wise. They're now Mercedes-Benz of Clear Lake. Of the 6 MB dealers in Houston, 3 will be independently owned (Star, Woodlands, Sugar Land), while the others are owned by Auto Nation (Greenway, North) and Group 1 (Clear Lake).

I remember when there were only 3 MB dealers in Houston. Intercontinental Motors, Star Motor Cars, and Norman Scott. You probably remember when the recently departed Helmut Holder's MB dealer was still in operation.

Intercontinental became Charlie Thomas Intercontinental, and became MB North in 2000 after Kenneth Schnitzer Jr. sold it to Auto Nation. Norman Scott became Park Place, moved to Greenway Plaza, and became MB Greenway in 2000 after Kenneth Schnitzer Jr sold it to Auto Nation, too.

If anyone is following this tread, looks like it's going to open up in February 2015.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/08/mercedes-benz-of-the-woodlands-to-open-early-next-year/

That's not a 6 stack? I don't think there's enough room to squeeze 3 more lanes on each side under the Beltway overpass, so they were going to run the HOT lanes over Beltway, and the 2 flyovers above that..

It's going to be just 2 more lanes in each direction. It looks like the 2 lanes will go in easy.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.597822,-95.386475,3a,75y,185.39h,84.62t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sT9jw_mZtp9ZsQxk5Aq3bpQ!2e0

I thought beltway 8 interchange was becoming a (worlds first) 6 stack?

Looks like it'll be a 5 stack.

Initial schematics:

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/hou/sh288_toll_lanes/project_documents/schematic_plans/initial/sh288_initial_sheet_08.pdf

Ultimate schematics:

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/hou/sh288_toll_lanes/project_documents/schematic_plans/ultimate/sh288_ultimate_sheet_07.pdf

Thanks.  I am disappointed they are doing 2 lanes each direction instead of 4 reversible lanes, but I'm guessing the simplicity outweighs the additional capacity utilization (I'm guessing the contraflow lanes will be nearly empty during rush hour - outbound in the morning and inbound in the evening, unless they make them free or close to it).

They're going to start out with one reversible lane. In time, it'll be widened into two nonreversible lanes.

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/hou/sh288_us59/harris_county_610_59.pdf

I don't know why they threw that in there. It's a Wal-Mart that's going to be built in Katy. You can see the street name is Falcon Landing Blvd, and on the top half, you can barely make out Westheimer Pkwy.

I may be wrong, but I *think* the plan is that the HOT express lanes will only go as far north as Macgregor, where there will be a flying ramp up towards the TMC, plus a merge back into the general lanes (I'm assuming) - so I don't think that landscaping north of Binz will get touched.  There's really no reason to extend them farther north, because there's no place to put them once you get to 59...

Here's the schematics that show the lanes ending at the interchange with 59. They don't show the flyover at Holcombe, though.

http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/hou/sh288_toll_lanes/project_documents/schematic_plans/initial/sh288_initial_sheet_13.pdf

I may be wrong, but I *think* the plan is that the HOT express lanes will only go as far north as Macgregor, where there will be a flying ramp up towards the TMC, plus a merge back into the general lanes (I'm assuming) - so I don't think that landscaping north of Binz will get touched.  There's really no reason to extend them farther north, because there's no place to put them once you get to 59...

The ramp at MacGregor was squashed. Instead, the ramp will be built at Holcombe. I'll try to find a link to the schematics.

I sometimes wonder what the traffic situation on 288 would be like today if it was completed in the mid-70s as planned with express lanes and not completed in the mid-80s without the express lanes.