Cancelled State Highway 225 - Where Would It Have Connected Downtown?

[Specwriter]

There is an out of print book titled Houston Freeways that devotes a chapter explaing why SH 225 was not extended. According to the chapter what The Niche says is essentially correct.

[ToryGattis]

There is an out of print book titled Houston Freeways that devotes a chapter explaing why SH 225 was not extended. According to the chapter what The Niche says is essentially correct.

The book is online if you want to check it out:

http://houstonfreeways.com/

[Subdude]

If I'm not mistaken, some preliminary connection work was in place on 59 near downtown for the Harrisburg Freeway (225), but was subsequently removed during later reconstruction.

[brucesw]

I didn't want to hijack the thread but now that the OP has been answered, a related question: before it was designated 225 it was just the La Porte highway, going back at least to the 1920s when that was how you got to Sylvan Beach. How did you get from Houston proper to the La Porte highway? Follow the Harrisburg route?, or could you go out the Galveston highway and turn left at some point? What was the connector if it wasn't direct? Did that portion of 610 between 45 and 225 replace an existing road?

[FilioScotia]

I'm almost a hundred percent sure that before the age of freeways, the only way to get to La Porte from downtown Houston was what you suggest. Take Harrisburg to Broadway, then take Broadway a mile or two south to the La Porte Road intersection and then go east through Pasadena and Deer Park.

That old stretch of road between Broadway and the Pasadena City Limits that was once named La Porte Road is now Lawndale. It's still there, I think. I drove it recently just for old time sake, and I can tell you it is several miles of very bad road. Especially at that old underpass.

The Old Galveston Road -- now State Hwy 3 -- took you to Galveston through South Houston, Webster, League City, Dickinson and La Marque. I can remember when it was just two lanes, not well maintained, and you had to really want to get to Galveston to make that drive, or take the Interurban train.

Other than several very long streets that run between OGR and 225 in Pasadena, I don't know of any other way to get from OGR to La Porte before you get to the Texas City "Y" at Hwy 146 in La Marque.

And your final question, I'm pretty sure that stretch of 610 between 225 and I-45 was a new route. It plowed new ground between those points. But I could be wrong.

f

Edited July 3, 2012 by FilioScotia

[NenaE]

I agee with FilioScotia' statements. I grew up off Hwy 225 & Allen-Genoa. Many times, my family traveled the old roadway that parallels the Hwy 225 Freeway. An interesting tidbit, the Sims (ranch land) plantation home sat in the area of the underpass, on land where Sims Bayou flows into Buffalo Bayou. It's been long-gone.The unfinished freeway took out the Broadway Theater on Harrisburg. The Lawndale Road at around the Broadway location follows the first railroad initiated in the area, BBB & C, I believe.

http://houstorian.wo...d-houston-maps/ : a map link to old maps of Houston, from a fellow Haifer. Check out the South or Southeast maps.

Edited July 3, 2012 by NenaE

[NenaE]

http://www.lib.utexa...sadena-1955.jpg

a continuation of Hwy 225 from Allen - Genoa - 1955

and the parent directory, link below, one name that is interesting to view is Park Place (for tracking development of southeast Houston freeways), the first map link above was named Pasadena.

Parent directory : http://www.lib.utexa...aps/topo/texas/

Edited July 3, 2012 by NenaE

[Marty Blaise]

I think the highway department or somebody is putting one over on us. The two beams that extend out farther from the freeway (59) are at the points where those original ghost ramps were in place on the east side of the freeway. I haven't checked the other side yet. That is just too eerie. Too coincidental to be ironic.

[FilioScotia]

Isn't it possible that TXDoT put those two ghost ramp stubs on the elevated 59 as part of an original plan for an exit ramp down onto Chartres Street?

[plumber2]

I too remember the exit/entrance stubs on 59. They were between the present GRB and Minute Maid Park. The stubs went out about 25-30 feet. The first stub northbound was evidently to receive an exit ramp to the future 225 eastbound. The next stub, further up, would have received entrance traffic from 225 onto northbound 59. The same occurring on the southbound side. I'm assuming these ramps would have dropped down below the elevated 59 and connected to a future 225 at grade or below grade. because there just did not seem to be enough clearance for any other kind of enterchange. Guard rails concealed these stubs from most drivers view, but they were clearly there. New freeway construction eliminated them.

Note: There was another ramp from the surface (not part of the future enterchange) that was real tricky. Northbound 59 feeder (Chartres) traffic could enter the freeway via an inside ramp between the two elevated sections. It was fun making the manuver with a new comer. It usually freaked them out, being that their fist thought was that this was an exit ramp!

[EspersonBuildings]

I remember those "stumps" well myself. My dad used to work at the Bordens Milk Plant that was located at 2020 Texas (just east of the 59 elevated). Being a kid they always struck me as odd because they just stuck out and ended in mid air. I also remember the freaky/akward entrance ramp (between two elevated sections of freeway on either side that Plumber is talking about). Being that I was only around 9 and did not think much about driving, still it seemed kind of "off"

Haven't posted or been on this site lately but it is always a delight to read the post, especially in the historical section. Always enjoy visiting!

Edited August 3, 2012 by EspersonBuildings

[NenaE]

That's interesting, about those freeway entrance/ exit stubs. I want to see a picture of them, now. Photos probably exist somewhere. I never noticed them, probably because we never went thay way.

Edited August 11, 2012 by NenaE

[Subdude]

It is interesting that the portion of 225 inside the loop would have been below grade, which would have been somewhat less disruptive to the neighborhood than a raised freeway.

[NenaE]

Subdude, so I guess it would have resembled the Memorial Parkway (is that the name?) that runs from Downtown Houston through Memorial Park to Loop 610 West? I did read (in one of those freeway documented history articles) that the "Harrisburg" freeway stubs were removed a short time ago. It was probably when construction started on the ballpark and/ or soccer stadiums, on the East End of Downtown.

The article did mention lack of funds as being a reason for no completion, as well as neighborhood opposition. the 1970's was the time of the massive building of the ship channel bridge. I can recall when that was completed.

Edited August 14, 2012 by NenaE

[Subdude]

I would have visualized it more as resembling the trenched section of 59 from downtown to Kirby.

I read that also about the freeway stubs being removed just a few years back.