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IH 610 South Loop Widening


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"A portion of Loop 610, largely unchanged since Richard Nixon was president, is likely to get a new look in the coming years, but not until local commuters can have their say at meetings planned this week.

The Texas Department of Transportation will hold two in person meetings and an online session lasting the rest of the month to discuss-long term plans for Loop 610 south of downtown from FM 521 – also Almeda Road in the Houston area – to Telephone Road near Interstate 45."

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Hopefully this plan falls through :) The highway is legit in great condition; I often drive on here. 

TXDOT is legit going to choke the crap out of Houston with the construction thats legit planned at almost every highway within the loop.  

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4 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

Hopefully this plan falls through :) The highway is legit in great condition; I often drive on here. 

Keep your eye out for the public comment period and send your comments to TXDOT. I'll do the same as well as I totally agree with you!! 

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2 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Hopefully this plan falls through :) The highway is legit in great condition; I often drive on here. 

TXDOT is legit going to choke the crap out of Houston with the construction thats legit planned at almost every highway within the loop.  

I'm going to be honest for the most part it is but once you get closer to the 45 interchange it's terrible the main Lane bridges need to be rebuilt as well as the whole interchange besides the new ramps that were just built.

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4 minutes ago, kennyc05 said:

I'm going to be honest for the most part it is but once you get closer to the 45 interchange it's terrible the main Lane bridges need to be rebuilt as well as the whole interchange besides the new ramps that were just built.

I get you, I just don't like the idea of another "highway widening." I wouldn't mind some portions getting rebuilt, but I'm tired of TXDOT's solution constantly being "build more lanes"

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2 hours ago, Amlaham said:

I get you, I just don't like the idea of another "highway widening." I wouldn't mind some portions getting rebuilt, but I'm tired of TXDOT's solution constantly being "build more lanes"

Aesthetically this is a very ugly portion of 610. Not only is the freeway ugly the deplorable buildings/houses in the area are a blight to look at from the freeway. I wonder why the city won’t make property owners tear down much of it. And I don’t know why TxDot uses short concrete medians that are never installed in a straight line and have weeds growing from them. Taller medians would help hide much of the blight below. So I would say yes to rebuilding this area but no to feeder roads. 

Edited by citykid09
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3 hours ago, citykid09 said:

Aesthetically this is a very ugly portion of 610. Not only is the freeway ugly the deplorable buildings/houses in the area are a blight to look at from the freeway. I wonder why the city won’t make property owners tear down much of it. And I don’t know why TxDot uses short concrete medians that are never installed in a straight line and have weeds growing from them. Taller medians would help hide much of the blight below. So I would say yes to rebuilding this area but no to feeder roads. 

I think there should be tall concrete barriers between the freeway and the feeder roads.

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16 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Hopefully this plan falls through :) The highway is legit in great condition; I often drive on here. 

TXDOT is legit going to choke the crap out of Houston with the construction thats legit planned at almost every highway within the loop.  

this is true, the only traffic that is created on that section of loop is around the construction on 288.

  

14 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

I'm going to be honest for the most part it is but once you get closer to the 45 interchange it's terrible the main Lane bridges need to be rebuilt as well as the whole interchange besides the new ramps that were just built.

yeah, but if you look at the image of the construction area, the Gulf Freeway/610 interchange isn't highlighted as being included. maybe they just didn't highlight things correctly, but it doesn't look like that's part of the vision for now.

Edited by samagon
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19 hours ago, citykid09 said:

I was meaning this also. 

Kind of like the walls they have going through the city of Bellaire or taller I don't understand why they haven't done that I hate driving down the freeway and seeing cluttered mess especially on 45 😵💫😵💫😵💫

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1 hour ago, kennyc05 said:

Kind of like the walls they have going through the city of Bellaire or taller I don't understand why they haven't done that I hate driving down the freeway and seeing cluttered mess especially on 45 😵💫😵💫😵💫

Those concrete walls are expensive and add to the cost per mile of the free substantially. Which is why you only ever see them on highways going through residential areas. Their purpose isn't to hide blight, its for soundproofing so the noise of the traffic doesn't effect neighborhoods.

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23 hours ago, Big E said:

Those concrete walls are expensive and add to the cost per mile of the free substantially. Which is why you only ever see them on highways going through residential areas. Their purpose isn't to hide blight, its for soundproofing so the noise of the traffic doesn't effect neighborhoods.

It still would be nice if we had them to hide blight along freeways.

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you guys have it all backwards.

freeways are the blight that need to be hidden (along with the noise pollution). I just wish the other pollution (rubber, and particulate) could be so easily stopped with a wall.

people that live near a freeway have to suffer with the freeway any time they are home. you only have to suffer looking at their homes when you are a traveler on that freeway. 

Edited by samagon
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On 6/16/2023 at 8:09 AM, samagon said:

you guys have it all backwards.

freeways are the blight that need to be hidden (along with the noise pollution). I just wish the other pollution (rubber, and particulate) could be so easily stopped with a wall.

people that live near a freeway have to suffer with the freeway any time they are home. you only have to suffer looking at their homes when you are a traveler on that freeway. 

This thread went full Robert Moses so quick!

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The 610/45 exchange by Gulfgate has always been screwy ever since they built it. Weird exchange between 610/45/35 and there used to be sneaky ways to avoid traffic coming off 610 eastbound to 45 southbound by going underneath it all passing the Metro station.

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On 6/14/2023 at 6:57 PM, Big E said:

Those concrete walls are expensive and add to the cost per mile of the free substantially. Which is why you only ever see them on highways going through residential areas. Their purpose isn't to hide blight, its for soundproofing so the noise of the traffic doesn't effect neighborhoods.

I totally understand why the walls were put up in an area like where 610 runs through Bellaire.    Bellaire was there for decades before the freeway came through and ripped out blocks of housing.   

What I don't understand is why neighborhoods that were built after the freeways also get  soundwalls when the freeway is rebuilt.        Thinking of places like Greatwood in Sugar Land  when I-69 was rebuilt past the Brazos River.      The freeway was there decades before the neighborhood was built.      In fact - one of the reasons the freeway had to be expanded was due to the neighborhood being built.       So in that case - why should  DOT (taxpayers) have to pay for that?   Shouldn't the cost be on the developer/home buyer?      If you buy a new house built next to a freeway - it is going to expand at some point.  If you want quiet - should be in the cost of your house.

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14 hours ago, Pleak said:

I totally understand why the walls were put up in an area like where 610 runs through Bellaire.    Bellaire was there for decades before the freeway came through and ripped out blocks of housing.   

What I don't understand is why neighborhoods that were built after the freeways also get  soundwalls when the freeway is rebuilt.        Thinking of places like Greatwood in Sugar Land  when I-69 was rebuilt past the Brazos River.      The freeway was there decades before the neighborhood was built.      In fact - one of the reasons the freeway had to be expanded was due to the neighborhood being built.       So in that case - why should  DOT (taxpayers) have to pay for that?   Shouldn't the cost be on the developer/home buyer?      If you buy a new house built next to a freeway - it is going to expand at some point.  If you want quiet - should be in the cost of your house.

yikes, if we start making the people in the suburbs pay their actual share of cost, no one would be able to afford to live in the suburbs.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This is incredibly long overdue.

For those saying that the traffic doesn't exist here or that it was caused by the 288 Contruction never drove this road before all that.

Back in my day before that construction .... early to mid 2010's .... you'd still sit in bad / bad traffic heading east in the morning and heading west in the evening. 

All because on non-continuous frontage roads and antiquated on / off ramps. Not really a capacity problem IMO as much as it is a design issue. Fix the frontage rds to be continuous and have all the exits / onramps be  'X' / reverse diamond interchanges with dedicated exit / entry lanes on 610.

 

Once this all is fixed, then we can start talking about an even more needed upgrade to the 610 section from  I45 -> 225 and the cluster that is. They really need to design it much like 290 / 610 / I10 is on the west side. You should be able to take a direct connection from I45 to 225 and visa-versa without actually getting on 610 at all. In addition, heading east on 610 you should commit to taking either 45, 225. or continuing on 610 well before you actually get to I45. Ideally that should be right after the Spur 5 exit stuff that's going to now get built. South on 610, you should be able to pick 225, 45 N or S, or continuing on 610 before you even hit 225. Probably will need to get lumped in with a rebuild of the ship channel bridge, but good golly that's needed for petro commerce / ship channel commerce that the road serves. Some big $$$$'s lost in the congestion everyday b/c of a bad design.

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3 hours ago, Highrise Tower said:

Also, what's up with all the sides being painted blue? That looks really good and the whole 610 system should be painted!

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When they rebuild this interchange txdot went with the coastal bridge theme (blue paint and wave textures). The I-45 south construction has this same theme as well. I wish they used this style more often.

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