I-45 Rebuild (North Houston Highway Improvement Project)

[j.33]

Oh the people on NextDoor never fail to spew misinformation and fear among each other. Its been unfortunately funny and entertaining seeing all of their posts on Montrose Blvd Improvements and 11th Street Bike Lanes. Also, a whole lot of them fall for scams (seems to be the other main topic they talk about in addition to hating bike lanes and road improvements). 

[samagon]

has anyone documented traffic times across town as they sit now so they can be compared in 15-20 years when this project is completed, and people have gotten used to traveling on the realignments?

[hindesky]

I attended the meeting in person on Crawford St. in midtown. The room was way too small for the number of people that showed up. They said they weren't expecting this many people to show up. It was very hard to get access to the boards they had about the presentation. I was able to get a few pics of some of them. Several local tv news stations were here also.

 

Interview with one of the local Spanish speaking stations.

 

 

[hindesky]

The QR code on the boards led to this page.

https://nhhippublicmeetings.com/2023/

[kennyc05]

I'm intrigued about those future cap extensions they might as well just build the Caps already extended 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[Houston19514]

9 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

I'm intrigued about those future cap extensions they might as well just build the Caps already extended 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

What future cap extensions are you referring to?

[kennyc05]

12 hours ago, hindesky said:

I attended the meeting in person on Crawford St. in midtown. The room was way too small for the number of people that showed up. They said they weren't expecting this many people to show up. It was very hard to get access to the boards they had about the presentation. I was able to get a few pics of some of them. Several local tv news stations were here also.

 

Interview with one of the local Spanish speaking stations.

 

 

 

47 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

What future cap extensions are you referring to?

It's the fourth picture down. 

[hindesky]

https://abc13.com/i45-expansion-houston-project-to-start-north-highway-improvement-controversial/14148959/

[Houston19514]

1 hour ago, kennyc05 said:

 

It's the fourth picture down. 

You misunderstand the picture.  Those cap extensions are being incorporated into the plan for construction as the project is done, not put off to the future. They just have to do additional enviro studies to make the changes to the plan.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Houston19514

[hindesky]

https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2023/12/06/txdot-to-hold-1st-public-meeting-regarding-controversial-i-45-expansion-project/

[pablog]

Can we remove the entire downtown connector from the plan? It seems so pointless to me. Can people just not drive on downtown streets for a mile to reach the southern end of downtown?

[hindesky]

At the bottom of this article there are links to sign up for the virtual Zoom meetings to be held for all 3 segments. You have to register in order to attend.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/transportation/2023/12/06/471658/txdot-holding-public-meetings-in-houston-ahead-of-construction-for-i-45-expansion-project/

[kennyc05]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

You misunderstand the picture.  Those cap extensions are being incorporated into the plan for construction as the project is done, not put off to the future. They just have to do additional enviro studies to make the changes to the plan.

Oh okay nice! I'm glad they're larger than what they originally planned for!

[Houston19514]

32 minutes ago, kennyc05 said:

Oh okay nice! I'm glad they're larger than what they originally planned for!

Indeed, and the funding is being put together for the finishing of the tops of the caps, both the Midtown/Museum District caps and the Downtown/Eado cap.

[kennyc05]

5 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

Indeed, and the funding is being put together for the finishing of the tops of the caps, both the Midtown/Museum District caps and the Downtown/Eado cap.

I still kinda wish they would just make it one big as cap like the Eado one .

Edited December 7, 2023 by kennyc05

[Houston19514]

12 minutes ago, kennyc05 said:

I still kinda wish they would just make it one big as cap like the Eado one .

I think that would require mechanical ventilation, which in turn would require more right-of-way.

[Triton]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

I think that would require mechanical ventilation, which in turn would require more right-of-way.

Yup, this is exactly why they aren't completely capping it. 

Even with the updates, it looks less and less likely that the San Jacinto extension will have an underpass at the railroad tracks. I really wish the city would bump up this extension on their list of Northside projects. N Main can't even handle the current traffic around UHD and having the San Jacinto extension would further connect us to downtown.... perhaps we'll have to do an at-grade extension at this point.

[Triton]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

I think that would require mechanical ventilation, which in turn would require more right-of-way.

Yup, this is exactly why they aren't completely capping it. 

Even with the updates, it looks less and less likely that the San Jacinto extension will have an underpass at the railroad tracks. I really wish the city would bump up this extension on their list of Northside projects. N Main can't even handle the current traffic around UHD and having the San Jacinto extension would further connect us to downtown.... perhaps we'll have to do an at-grade extension at this point.

 

Edit:

The 288 Update seems bizarre. It seems they should leave the 288 toll lane extension to bypass the traffic coming from I-69 and they can keep the existing entrance further down near Southmore Blvd.

[JLWM8609]

1 hour ago, Triton said:

Yup, this is exactly why they aren't completely capping it. 

Even with the updates, it looks less and less likely that the San Jacinto extension will have an underpass at the railroad tracks. I really wish the city would bump up this extension on their list of Northside projects. N Main can't even handle the current traffic around UHD and having the San Jacinto extension would further connect us to downtown.... perhaps we'll have to do an at-grade extension at this point.

Are COH and TxDOT not on the same page? COH seems to still be anticipating a N. San Jacinto extension underneath the railroad and the future Providence feeder road as of April 2022.

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by JLWM8609

[JClark54]

14 minutes ago, JLWM8609 said:

Are COH and TxDOT not on the same page? COH seems to still be anticipating a N. San Jacinto extension underneath the railroad and the future Providence feeder road as of April 2022.

 

I wonder if both are correct, in the sense the underpass is a city project rather than a TxDOT one? The new underpass at Commerce as well as the rebuilt one at Navigation -- pieces of the so-called West Belt improvement project -- are city projects and don't appear on the 45 realignment schematic posted above, despite those roads providing highway access.

 

 

[Triton]

3 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

Are COH and TxDOT not on the same page? COH seems to still be anticipating a N. San Jacinto extension underneath the railroad and the future Providence feeder road as of April 2022.

 

You might be on to something. If you zoom into the TXDOT schematic, it appears you can see a single lane coming south from the westbound feeder. That would appear to match what COH has which is a single lane coming south while there's an underpass right next to that lane. So TXDOT builds the lane and COH builds the underpass. Very interesting!

[hindesky]

Part 1.

[hindesky]

Part 2.

[hindesky]

Part 3.

Part 4.

[nolaboy]

Why isn't there an option to trench/cap the Pierce, and leave I-45 in its current path of the west side of downtown? Considering that nearly half of I-45 will still remain in place on that side for the the downtown connector and the ROW is already there. The cap would still allow downtown/midtown to be integrated, as opposed to a much wider cap on the east side.

[hindesky]

17 minutes ago, nolaboy said:

Why isn't there an option to trench/cap the Pierce, and leave I-45 in its current path of the west side of downtown? 

My wild guess is that they want to remove the barrier between downtown and Midtown and possibly sell the properties to developers.

[BEES?!]

Thank you for getting those slides together, @hindesky !

[TacoDog]

3 hours ago, nolaboy said:

Why isn't there an option to trench/cap the Pierce, and leave I-45 in its current path of the west side of downtown? Considering that nearly half of I-45 will still remain in place on that side for the the downtown connector and the ROW is already there. The cap would still allow downtown/midtown to be integrated, as opposed to a much wider cap on the east side.

The current path has a lot of pinch points that slow down traffic. The new route is supposed to fix the problem. 

[hindesky]

Saw this crew of core drillers on St. Emanuel St. at Polk St., asked if they knew what it's for they said for storm sewers and drainage. I had to tell what it's going to be, the new feeder road for the IH 45 realignment.

 

[Triton]

Looks like they decided to release the rest of the updates after tonight's Segment 2 town hall.
 

Zoomed in:

 

 

Segment 1

 

 

 

TxDOT-NHHIP-Stretch-Banners_Segment-2-12-3-23.pdf TxDOT-NHHIP-Stretch-Banners_Segment-1-12-3-23.pdf