rhinolaw

Top picture was taken south of North Main Street looking south to downtown along I-45. The bottom is a rendering that was done considering that I-45 is placed in tunnels and the surface is reconstructed into a parkway (Allen Parkway style). The rendering was done by Tom Dornbush, out talented volunteer and member of the Woodcrest Civic Club.

FYI... In April 2005 Council Member Adrian Garcia held a meeting attended by: Gary Trietsch (TxDOT District Engineer), Bob Eury and Guy Hagstette (Downtown Management District), and Mike Sampson (Hines Corporation). I was there as well. At this meeting there were several VERY important statements made by Mr. Trietsch: 1. If the tunnel concept was something that was desired by the public TxDOT can do it but TxDOT cannot do it by itself and will need help. 2. TxDOT will look at the tunnel concept and evaluated it on its own engineering merits. 3. Mayor White and METRO need to be engaged in the process. Therefore I must bring up the fact that early in the process TxDOT was and is supportive of alternatives. The sad part is that we tend to grand-stand TxDOT instead of recognizing the fact that TxDOT is willing to work with the community. AND instead of working with TxDOT we work against TxDOT. Agree, the Mayor's office is VERY critical to any highway development within the City limits. But instead of elected officials be proactive and engage TxDOT early in the process, it is discouraging that it takes the action of few residents to generate enough out-cry and thus get the attention of elected officials. ...TxDOT does not work in a vacuum. All work done by TxDOT is open to the public and for review and approval of our public and elected officials. In may aspects kjb434 is correct and it is wise to read and try to understand his/her point of view. On the other hand, I don't think it is correct to blame a person for not attending a public meeting. Reminder that it was the decision of the I-45 coalition to mainly provide the public information on TxDOT's study and not about the tunnel concept. Note that: although the I-45 coalition has sent a letter supporting the feasibility study of the tunnel concept, their support is not exclusive to the tunnel but inclusive to it and any other alternatives. On a side note and to sign off... will attach a rendering for some of you who might not have seen it. Gonzalo

INTERESTING reading. am i correct to assume that Mr. Gonzales is actualy Mr. Camacho? Gonzalo is my first name and some folks think I am Gonzales... not the same... Regarding your comments...you are correct, we need some basic data to make inferences other wise we have the old GIGA, garbage in garbage out. Regretfully I don't think there is enough information on what you call my "proposal" to make any sound engineering or technical judgements, unless you sent your friends additional data like soil borings? Lots of topics you cover... "Any attempt to tunnel in these areas will see severe baclash from environmental groups and will need many approvals from the TCEQ and Texas Water Board." Any further thoughts on this? I don't see its relevance to the I-45 corridor. If the tunnel concept was only to give hope and not based in sound engineering judgement perhaps TxDOT would have not requested its consulutant to hire a tunnel engineer to look into it. I have to confess to you that all my engineering judgement and that of few other experts who are very familiar with tunnel technology and soil conditions in Houston support the concept of buidling tunnels under I-45. By the way, I would be interested in learning from your Boston tunnel friends the tunnel methods used. However, for a project that was estimated to cost $2.6 Billion and end up costing over $14 billion, I think there was a lot more than missing soil information. Also, I would love to find out the portion of the $14 billion plus that went in the actual construction of the Boston tunnel. Also, not sure if I would agree with you on your statement "Civil engineers rarely a jumping at the prospect of going into geolocical engineering arm of of Civil Engineering because there is a lot of risk." Some of the civil engineers I know who are geotechnical/soil experts may disagree with you since civil engineers, including myself, love to work with risk factors and to design around them. It is a challenge. But just to give you a little confort, I have consulted with several experts in tunneling and some who are very familiar with Houston's geology. Their conclusion based on years of their personal experience is that tunnels are feasible in Houston. However, to address the risk analysis is necessary to do a feasibility study, thus my proposal is not to build a tunnel but to conduct a feasibility analysis that will give our public officials and TxDOT solid data for making appropriate decisions. Bottom line. Houston has a great opportunity to do some world class engineering. If people don't support the tunnel concept then perhaps they need to think what they will support. I have done the thinking on various alternatives and all roads lead to tunnels. The tunnel concept is first class engineering. All others is business as ususual. You tell me what Houston and Houstonians deserve? Business as usual or a first class city. There is one element that you and others have to think about - Houston is the second most polluted city in the USA. Do you think that after living in Houston for many years the pollution may affect your health? Roadway tunnels filter the air. I have not come up with another roadway alternative that does it. Like I often told members of the I-45 coalition, be careful on what you ask because you might get it. If you want to learn about tunnel engineering feel free to attend the Houston Transportation and Mobility Conference. We are having some top world class tunnel experts give some presentations on their experiences. Even TxDOT from Dallas will tell us about their choice for building a 2.5 mile twin roadway tunnel. www.transportationandmobility.com Keep up the echange of ideas. It is healthy and necessary.

Thank you for bringing this project to my attention. Tons of information at the following web page. http://www.projectpegasus.org/default.htm My personal thinking - the redevelopment of the at-grade I-45 could be much better than the Project Pegasus in Dallas. Visit http://www.camachoassociates.com/i45vision.htm a web page I created for internal discussion. Observe the picture from a boulevard in Barcelona. It has the various elements that could be invision to be part of the I-45 parkway. Gonzalo C.

the cost estimate was done by Dr. Sauer http://dr-sauer.com/index_html_flash. the actual cost of constructing the tunnels are two times the construction of at-grade lanes. the cost savings comes from environmental impacts, not having the need to purchase right of way, reduced cost of engineering, and reduced cost of construction management. to give you an idea on the magnitude of the numbers, i believe the cost of right of way for I-10 is around $300 million. Dr. Sauer is what I would consider and expert in the field, he does not need to play games with numbers because he knows his business. You all would find his knowledge about the big dig very interesting. Per his comments, before construction of the big dig was started he told public officials and engineers that they were doing the wrong thing. With the I-45 Coalition we plan to have a public meeting in July and hopefully will have Dr. Sauer in town so he can share his thoughts on the project. Will keep you posted.

why not a friend told me about this bulleting and took the time to read your comments. rather enjoyable i would say. what i do need to do is generate a rendering of what the I-45 tunnel could look like... in the mean time think of two tunnels (one northbound and one southbound) designed for through traffic... reconstruct the at-grade I-45 into a parkway (similar to the allen parkway/memorial) where there is more green space and few traffic signals...this will be for local traffic (in HGAC's terms is called express street)... and don't forget for metro to place a light rail or brt or some kind of mass transit in the middle.... this will link greenspoint to downtown...a quick and future link to the airports... so, think of the pierce elevated gone and replaced with a nice parkway with lots of trees and a metro express route...not bad comming from a self serving heights fellow... 14.5 miles of tunnel would be the longest in the USA and would certainly get world attention...not bad....now we are placing houston where it should be...up there with the best cities... thank you for your comments. they certainly help me identify areas that i need to communicate better. gonzalo camacho