Another Katy Freeway Project

[kjb434]

US 290 Concept Pate (West Houston Association)

The above link is information regarding what is planned for US 290. Public meetings have already been held for this project and has received little opposition from residents. The may be due to the lack of interested, but they were notified. All Transtar signs and roadside signs displayed meeting times and locations for months.

The MIS is already submitted and will most likely be approved. The concept is to build a managed lane system similar to the Katy Freeway. The difference is the managed lanes will use the Hempstead Hwy corridor from Beltway 8 to the Northwest Transit Center and I-10. Outside the beltway, the managed lanes will run along the south side of the freight tracks. These managed lanes will be build first.

The second portion of the project will be the reconstruction of the freeway mainlanes and the interchage with I-610. No reconstruction of the Belway 8 interchange will be needed like in the Katy Freeway. The Beltway 8 interchange was designed for this ultimate expansion anyway.

After the freeway portions are completed, metro will have the option to construct rail. The managed lane systed will buy the right-of-way for rail. This will creat a rail/toll road combination.

Looking at the progress and speed of the Katy Freeway construction, the reconstruction of US 290 will much easier. Right-of-way accquisition will not be as difficult as with the Katy freeway. US 290 has the room for expanstion without impacting much of its surroundings.

What i do like is the future planning for the rail corridor that is accompanying this project. The rail corridor has been planned as a commuter rail and not lightrail. This will mean few specially placed stations with place to park in the suburbs and ride into the city. This will be similar to what is planned for the stretch from the current south terminus of the light rail system and Sugarland.

[MaxConcrete]

I noticed that no projects for the US 290 corridor are listed in the HGAG 3-year tip for 2006-2008. In terms of TxDOT projects, I'm assuming nothing is going to happen until the Katy Freeway is complete. I've also heard that the US 290 improvements may be indefinitely delayed if the Hempstead tollway is built.

I've also seen a suggestion on the HCTRA web site that the US 290 toll lanes may even be located on the 290 ROW, not Hempstead. This is from the recently published map on their web site, which shows the lanes on US 290 rather than Hempstead.

So the scenario I'm seeing is

1. HCTRA builds the tollway (not sure on which alignment), probably starting construction before 2010

2. TxDOT builds improved interchange at Loop 610.

3. No improvements to US 290 for a long, long time.

4. Possible commuter rail if Harris County comes up with the money. (Metro will be tapped out with the light rail)

Anyone heard anything different?

[kjb434]

I agree, the full blown completion of a US 290 rebuild is a long way off. One thing I noticed is that the WHA expects the toll portion to be built first. Most places i'm looking is seeming to settle on the toll (managed lanes) alignment I mentioned above. This alignment will allow the current operation of US 290 to continue will little to no interuptions.

I think the toll alignment may be enough to assist US 290 for the interim. If the tollway is operated as a managed lane concept, then I expect the HOV portions of US 290 to be removed. The thing i'm concerned with is the tie into I-10 and I-610. It may just terminate at the Northwest transit center or have an offramp there. I think once the MIS is approved, HCTRA will look forward to beginning the project. Technically they can start without the MIS, but I expect the MIS is needed to operate the facility as a managed lane concept with HOV(3) vehicles riding free. I wish I could find a copy of the MIS.

[GovernorAggie]

I met with a lady who worked on the MIS for 290 and she said that the planned interchanges for the 290 re-build were very huge and complex, to say the least. While I'm sure that BW8 can handle 290's extra lanes, I'm waiting to see how the tollway's lanes will be integrated into that interchange. My guess is that they wold be too close to have two separate interchanges on BW8, so the 290Toll and 290Free interchanges with BW8 could be woven together a la the KatyToll and KatyFree lanes being interwoven into the 610 and BW8 interchanges.

[dp2]

The thing i'm concerned with is the tie into I-10 and I-610.  It may just terminate at the Northwest transit center or have an offramp there.  I think once the MIS is approved, HCTRA will look forward to beginning the project.  Technically they can start without the MIS, but I expect the MIS is needed to operate the facility as a managed lane concept with HOV(3) vehicles riding free.  I wish I could find a copy of the MIS.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm guessing the endgame is to still build the tollway parallel to 610 west, which had been planned to use railroad ROW from NW Mall, through Memorial Park, and about a mile to the east all the way down to the Hwy 90A mini-freeway. Could use the first portion of that ROW for a short 610 to I-10 cutoff.

Definitely need capacity in the 610 west corridor, but unless they bury it in a cut-n-cover tunnel through Memorial Park, I'll lobby against that portion.

[kjb434]

The tollway through the park has been tabled for now. It's not gone though. I would support a cut an cover tunnel. Sure you'll have to deal with the construction, but when its done you won't see it.

The Tollway parallel to US 290 will probably not have any real interaction with the beltway other than maybe two ramps like Westpark and US 59.

The proposed tollway was to handle the traffic from the Cypress area and replace th HOV lane on US 290. Currently, if you exit off the belway you can get on the HOV lane until Pinemont. It's not a normal traffic patter. Also, if a portion of traffic get pulled off of US 290 onto the new tollway, US 290 will have more capacity free for people coming from the beltway to US 290.

I looked at the Belway 8 interchange a little closer the other day with US 290. Some of the supports may be in the way of a new lane. Technicall just one lane is needed for US 290 since the HOV can be converted into a regular lane when it gets removed.

[GovernorAggie]

kjb434,

I must respectfully disagree. I think that the the 290 Tollway should have a full interchange wih BW8, maybe interwoven with the 290/BW8 interchange. Westpark/59 is a little different since they run almost parallel. Katy Tollway has separate interchanges at 610 and BW8, they are just built within the Katy Freeway interchanges with those facilities.

Then again, I may be using "interchanges" when I should say direct connectors.

Concerning BW8's columns being in the way of new lanes--I saw the interchange today and I think that quite a bit of ramp replacement may have to happen. For instance, the massive structures holding the 290EB/BW8NB ramp and the 290WB/BW8SB ramp may have to be removed, as well as the ramps that travel over the feeders, since they will also be moved outward. So I think that most, if not all, of the interchange could possibly be replaced, which would be an amazing event. The schematics should be out soon, so hopefully we can all see.

I tried to look at the RTP for the project but there are so many 290 projects in it. The total cost to basically do the project looks to be over $1.52 billion. I think that's a low number. However, the most important thing was that the first improvement projects are scheduled to be let this year (improvements around Mason and Bauer Rds.) and the latest let date is 2014, which could mean that the entire thing could be done by 2018-2020. HCTRA wasn't scheduled to let the Toll Road until 2013.

Also, I only saw the 290/610/10 interchange reconstruction included in a section curiously called, "US 290 from Mangum to IH-10" and is the fourth most expensive piece (over $195M) to the tollway ($200M), the segment from SH6 to Grand Parkway (over $245M), and the segment from Grand Parkway to 2920 (a whopping $439M!). With the segments including the GP costing nearly $700M, I would think that that includes the GP/290 stack. Which makes me wonder why the segment that would include BW8 (529 to Gessner) only costs just under $84 million. It's obvious that they have to make some alterations to the interchange, since they'd be adding 4 mainlanes, not counting auxiliary lanes.

I'll do some more digging.