cloud713 Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Yeah I was wondering that too. The only way I could figure they can turn it into a 5 stack is if they trench the feeder roads below 290. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Yeah I was wondering that too. The only way I could figure they can turn it into a 5 stack is if they trench the feeder roads below 290.Which would require re building the 290 mainlanes. That's not gonna happen. Neither is the elevated frontage road Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkylineView Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Looks like the RFQ is being put together for the next piece from 59-NE to I-10 E (and also including the goofy connection from 99 to 146). Link 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollusk Posted July 5, 2014 Share Posted July 5, 2014 Goofy connection or no, these particular segments will help out with evacuating the vulnerable area around the bay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Yeah I was wondering that too. The only way I could figure they can turn it into a 5 stack is if they trench the feeder roads below 290.Well, months later not a lot has happened on the 290 lanes. The highway lanes go crooked, a sharp merge from an exit, no shoulders. And nightly lane closures. These factors make me think the show's not over yet.If they were going to depress the frontage roads, I would think that's the first thing they'd do. They also might (I said might, as a planning document seemed to indicate) put the frontage roads as the fifth top level. It's plausible since the existing ramps don't go THAT high, and one five stack in Dallas does have the main lanes on top... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 The lack of frontage roads on Segment E doesn't really necessitate any depressed or raised frontage roads. It's a toll road and they dIsnt build the roads to be used for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 The lack of frontage roads on Segment E doesn't really necessitate any depressed or raised frontage roads. It's a toll road and they dIsnt build the roads to be used for free.TxDOT documents showed frontage roads. The north end of the Mason Road stub has stubs for frontage roads. The part south of the Katy Freeway has frontage roads. Maybe not NOW, but sometime eventually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Ok yeah that's what I kind of meant. As of now it's a toll road to get from one highway to another across a vast 26 mile stretch of vacant land. There's just no need for them. Also, TXDOT documents are not set in stone and are merely a reflection of what would be nice to have. Those are just Plan&Profile sheets that they have up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trae Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Expansion talk for Segment E of the Grand Parkway already starting. New section getting 80,000 vehicles per day. Pretty busy during rush hour now.http://impactnews.com/houston-metro/katy/grand-parkway-paves-the-way-for-growth/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 They're so right about that I-10 West ramp onto the GP. It's pretty awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 OMG, building more Toll Roads and Freeways doesn't solve traffic problems??? That's news to me. I know what we should do, we should build more highways! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 We keep paying, and they'll keep building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Did the traffic relocate from somewhere else, like Fry Road or the Beltway? Apparently, some people think that traffic just spontaneously generates from highways, of which a similar theory was disproved in the 17th century. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 It's called path of least resistance IronTiger. Fry Road has traffic lights and the Grand Parkway doesn't so it's faster to travel on and people who would have to travel further in town to get to the Beltway now use 99. No one is saying that Highways "spontaneously" generate traffic, but they do make it easier for traffic to accumulate due to it's ubiquitous nature where by default people make the assumption that the Highway is the fastest way to travel or only way to travel to get anywhere (which in Houston's case is true due to the poor planning of the underlying street infrastructure and the absence of other modes of travel that could act as a release valve to unload the burden at peak hours). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 It's called path of least resistance IronTiger. Fry Road has traffic lights and the Grand Parkway doesn't so it's faster to travel on and people who would have to travel further in town to get to the Beltway now use 99. No one is saying that Highways "spontaneously" generate traffic, but they do make it easier for traffic to accumulate due to it's ubiquitous nature where by default people make the assumption that the Highway is the fastest way to travel or only way to travel to get anywhere (which in Houston's case is true due to the poor planning of the underlying street infrastructure and the absence of other modes of travel that could act as a release valve to unload the burden at peak hours).Yup. You got it. A lot of people bastardize/simplify the whole induced demand theory into "highway widenings are useless" or worse, "highways create congestion", but it really does depend on how the system is set up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the main reason 610 backs up near Uptown was that it replaced Post Oak Road, a vital surface street that without it leaves no true north/south road in the area. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trae Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 They're so right about that I-10 West ramp onto the GP. It's pretty awful.It is such an easy ramp to navigate. When traffic is slow, the grade going up is so steep that you do not even have to use your brakes (like pretty much all ramps). I don't understand why people have so much trouble with it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trae Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Yup. You got it. A lot of people bastardize/simplify the whole induced demand theory into "highway widenings are useless" or worse, "highways create congestion", but it really does depend on how the system is set up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the main reason 610 backs up near Uptown was that it replaced Post Oak Road, a vital surface street that without it leaves no true north/south road in the area.Disagree. 610 West Loop backs up because it is in a high volume area near large employment centers. It is still just a 3 or 4 mile stretch. If what you are saying were true, then the Katy freeway wouldn't have bad traffic because there are multiple side streets to take, but that freeway still backs up. Even in non rush hour traffic it backs up (and both directions too). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 It is such an easy ramp to navigate. When traffic is slow, the grade going up is so steep that you do not even have to use your brakes (like pretty much all ramps). I don't understand why people have so much trouble with it. This is 249 and the Beltway every single morning lol. Disagree. 610 West Loop backs up because it is in a high volume area near large employment centers. It is still just a 3 or 4 mile stretch. If what you are saying were true, then the Katy freeway wouldn't have bad traffic because there are multiple side streets to take, but that freeway still backs up. Even in non rush hour traffic it backs up (and both directions too). Before IronTiger jumps in on this one, both you are hitting the situation at different ends. Of course the biggest reason why it's so packed in is because of the large employment centers, but that is just scratching the surface of the problem. It goes into what I was saying before where the underlying surface street infrastructure we currently have in Houston doesn't really setup our highway system for success and in fact it guarantees failure! While it is true that there are multiple East/West surface streets that go from in town to out of town they have multiple lights and aren't efficiently connected to major districts. They simply go East/West which isn't very efficient. The inefficiency plus the multiple stoppages means that the only option is to go on the highway. When you look at Uptown there is a major problem with traffic going North/South. While the Katy freeway at least has those East/West streets that help relief the highway a little, in Uptown there are zero true North/South streets which cross the bayou. The Bayou is a barrier that literally redirects everyone onto 610 or the frontage roads creating the worst bottleneck ever. Adding the cherry to the crap sundae is the access ramp from 610 to Katy going Westbound. There is no separation of traffic from the access ramp and 610 until you are right at the ramp. The backflow of people trying to cheat the line is so ridiculous that it slows every single lane. It's the worst of the worst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 It is such an easy ramp to navigate. When traffic is slow, the grade going up is so steep that you do not even have to use your brakes (like pretty much all ramps). I don't understand why people have so much trouble with it.I don't have trouble with it lol. It's bad b/c everyone else does 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Vik Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Yup. You got it. A lot of people bastardize/simplify the whole induced demand theory into "highway widenings are useless" or worse, "highways create congestion", but it really does depend on how the system is set up. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but the main reason 610 backs up near Uptown was that it replaced Post Oak Road, a vital surface street that without it leaves no true north/south road in the area.It's a very simple concept that you refuse to understand. You build more lanes people will fill them up because they are there. It's becoming a running joke now, how much more widening is possible? Txdot and metro refuse to think of mass transit, instead their next idea is double and possibly triple stacking freeways. There is corruption and/or refusal of alternative ideas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted February 5, 2015 Share Posted February 5, 2015 Which would require re building the 290 mainlanes. That's not gonna happen. Neither is the elevated frontage road OK, here's a workable plan that doesn't involve rebuilding the mainlanes but still integrates just as well as a four stack. The new northside NB frontage roads for 99 split off in at-grade ramps (or at least that's what it appears to be) from the westbound frontage roads of 290, with the northside SB roads merging in with the westbound 290. To integrate the system, one thing that could happen is that there could be one railroad crossing where the southside frontage roads meet and intersect with 290, with additional bridges at the same grade of the 99 mainlanes going to the other side. Here's what I mean, sorta: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 (edited) I wish I had read this thread before I went to Messina Hof in Bryan today. Going there wasn't too bad. They had the 290 mainlanes closed and diverted traffic to the feeder while they did some sort of work that necessitated the closure of the mainlanes at the Grand Parkway. It was the return that was bad. They forced eastbound traffic off at Becker Rd. I planned to take the Grand Parkway to the Westpark Tollway to avoid the closure further ahead at 610, and thought I could access it from the feeder road. Lo and behold, there's no feeder road connection, and there was access to the Grand Parkway ramp available, but I realized it only upon passing it up and spent 30-45 minutes crawling to Mason Rd. Something told me to take FM359 from Hempstead to Brookshire to catch I-10 or go down further to Fulshear and cut over on 1093/Westpark Tollroad, and I should've listened to that voice. Edited March 29, 2015 by JLWM8609 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronTiger Posted March 29, 2015 Share Posted March 29, 2015 They're still doing nightly mainlane closures? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparrow Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 First short section of Grand Parkway in north Harris County is now open to traffic--feeder roads between new I-45 feeder lanes westward to Holzwarth Road. Main lane construction continues. Absolutely amazing transformation in this area. Unrecognizable from just a few short years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Drove up there a few hours ago. I'm curious why the 45 frontage lanes weren't paved and just overlayed with asphalt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 (edited) Drove up there a few hours ago. I'm curious why the 45 frontage lanes weren't paved and just overlayed with asphalt. It was probably cheaper. Edited April 8, 2015 by JLWM8609 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Drove up there a few hours ago. I'm curious why the 45 frontage lanes weren't paved and just overlayed with asphalt. It's most likely temporary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JLWM8609 Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 It's most likely temporary. Looks permanent in this photo. It looks like something you'd see more in the new construction of the San Antonio or Austin District of TxDOT. They love asphalt feeders. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 I spent some time over on the grand parkway website trying to figure out what the latest idea was for completion of the leg over to 59. At one point I think I read it was supposed to be open by the end of 2015, but it looks like they have expunged any and all references to when it will be complete, apart from this picture: http://www.grandpky.com/home/ http://www.grandparkway99.com/ Any other news on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 I took the 99 tollway from 290 to i10 a few weeks back. so sad. huge freeway, nothing there. I'm glad it's being paid for with tolls, so I can safely say I am being fleeced very lightly for this project in the middle of no where (sure, in time, it will be somewhere, but as of now, it's no where). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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