Anyone here use the Gulf Freeway? (Texas City, Lake City: 2014, construction, live in)

[piyf]

This freeway is getting to be like a parking lot. Even on the weekends it's horrible. 3 lanes only, ridiculous. Construction on a certain section started a while ago but I don't know what all it entails. Hopefully they add 2 more lanes each way from Beltway 8 to Texas City. And please use 2 lanes for entering and exiting the freeway.

/rant

[jasonamd]

The section the are expanding is from Beltway 8 to 2351. After that they will do from 2351 to Bay Area Blvd.

[texas7]

Agree - 45 is horrible. I work downtown and now instead of straight 45S home, I have been jumping on 45N to I10-E to 610 to 225 to BW8 or 45N to I-10E to BW8 and I get from downtown to the BW in only 20 mins.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by danieloneil01

This freeway is getting to be like a parking lot. Even on the weekends it's horrible. 3 lanes only, ridiculous. Construction on a certain section started a while ago but I don't know what all it entails. Hopefully they add 2 more lanes each way from Beltway 8 to Texas City. And please use 2 lanes for entering and exiting the freeway.

/rant

Has nothing to do with lanes
it's the idiots that drive 10 under the speed limit on the left lane that create the traffic jams.
Everytime I zig-zag through traffic and end up passing the idiot driving slow on the left lane, I have nobody in front of me for at least 1 mile.

[texas7]

ton of construction slow-ups outside the bw too.

[jasonamd]

The biggest issue heading south of the beltway is where the lanes coming off of the beltway eventually end and everyone waits until the last second to merge causing everyone else to slam on the brakes so they can get over. Constantly see people driving down the shoulder after the lane ends to get those one or 2 more cars behind them so it will save them the all important 5 seconds on thier journey.

[LostInHouston]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Has nothing to do with lanes
it's the idiots that drive 10 under the speed limit on the left lane that create the traffic jams.
Everytime I zig-zag through traffic and end up passing the idiot driving slow on the left lane, I have nobody in front of me for at least 1 mile.

Traveling north through clear lake it is all about the number of lanes. Heavy traffic in the left two lanes plus heavy slowed traffic coming on from the feeder every half mile makes it a disaster from 5 to 6 pm. A 4th lane would help alleviate a lot of the backups.

[piyf]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Has nothing to do with lanes
it's the idiots that drive 10 under the speed limit on the left lane that create the traffic jams.
Everytime I zig-zag through traffic and end up passing the idiot driving slow on the left lane, I have nobody in front of me for at least 1 mile.

It has everything to do with amount of lanes. There's to many people on the road for just 3 lanes. And even before the construction this section was horrible. Beltway 8 is heavily used and dumps both directions onto 45 which goes down to 3 lanes causing the traffic.


And I drive this everyday. It's not people driving 10 under in the left lane causing the problems.

[llmrkc07]

Thank God for HWY 3..i hardly ever get on I45 during the day. Even-though HWY 3 has lights, I always seem to make it to Bay Area faster...45 is a nightmare throughout the entire metro. I remember my internship was in the Woodlands and I live in the south-belt area...I would take the Hardy Toll road to 610E and 610E to HWY 3 during rush hour it would save me some time..still was about a 1 hour commute though.

[MobileDave]

The bottleneck is because it goes down to 3 lanes after the Beltway.

They are expanding from the Beltway south to one mile past Clear Lake City Blvd. When it is finished it will be 5 lanes on each side with 3 lane frontage roads on each side. The construction will not be complete until 2014.