TxDot wants to get rid of the pierce elevated. (Houston: 2014, insurance)

[14Bricks]

Why does this sound like a distarter waiting to happen. The traffic will be horrendous during construction.

In downtown, sweeping changes are planned, including realigning the freeway
to run parallel to U.S. 59. Moving the freeway would mean eliminating the Pierce
Elevated, which carries I-45 across the central business district.


Downtown officials blame the Pierce for cutting off some areas of downtown,
because the wide, elevated freeway acts as a barrier and his limited development
around it.

I-45 would move, sink and shift from Pierce Elevated in TxDOT plan - Houston Chronicle

[travelguy_73]

I'm not going to torpedo their ideas until they have been thoroughly reviewed. However, the idea of widening the northern stretches of 45, and wiping out much of the blight along the freeway, would be well worth the time spent in traffic during construction.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

It will be yet another place to watch cars, buses and trucks get stuck in what will become the 'Lake Pierce' during tropical depressions, or hurricanes.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

It will be yet another place to watch cars, buses and trucks get stuck in what will become the 'Lake Pierce' during tropical depressions, or hurricanes.

How many people will be commuting to work during tropical depressions and hurricanes ? And how often does that happen anyway. I like the idea of getting rid of the elevated since it will reconnect those west side neighborhoods with downtown and help make downtown a more livable neighborhood again. My question is what will these plans do to the connectivity of Midtown and the East side hoods to DT ?..

[979Texan]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

How many people will be commuting to work during tropical depressions and hurricanes ? And how often does that happen anyway. I like the idea of getting rid of the elevated since it will reconnect those west side neighborhoods with downtown and help make downtown a more livable neighborhood again. My question is what will these plans do to the connectivity of Midtown and the East side hoods to DT ?..

[Mod cut: personal]

Houston receives lots of rain in fall and spring. It doesn't take a tropical storm to flood roads. Sinking a major thoroughfare will not only cause a decade-long traffic nightmare but also make it an enormous safety concern for hundreds of thousands of commuters during the normal days when Houston receives precipitation.
[[Mod cut: personal]
It's textbook. Basically you're asserting redoing the highways around town is OK because people won't commute to work during tropical weather systems.

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by 979Texan

[Mod cut: personal]

Houston receives lots of rain in fall and spring. It doesn't take a tropical storm to flood roads. Sinking a major thoroughfare will not only cause a decade-long traffic nightmare but also make it an enormous safety concern for hundreds of thousands of commuters during the normal days when Houston receives precipitation.

[Mod cut: personal] It's textbook. Basically you're asserting redoing the highways around town is OK because people won't commute to work during tropical weather systems.

[Mod cut: personal] I was replying too mentioned tropical storms and hurricanes not your average SE Texas Thunderstorm.

If you have so little faith in the engineers and planners at Tx-Dot that you truly believe they would undertake such a project without considering the local climate then I doubt there is any TX-Dot project that you would support. So I guess we are stuck with the Pierce elevated forever. No Astrodome but we will still have the Pierce...

[crone]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

[Mod cut: personal] I was replying too mentioned tropical storms and hurricanes not your average SE Texas Thunderstorm.

If you have so little faith in the engineers and planners at Tx-Dot that you truly believe they would undertake such a project without considering the local climate then I doubt there is any TX-Dot project that you would support. So I guess we are stuck with the Pierce elevated forever. No Astrodome but we will still have the Pierce...

By the mid 70's many smart people were telling us that a storm like Carla would put 10 -16 feet of water in 1 Shell Plaza. TS Allison was 25 years later. No, I don't have any faith in the people at TxDot. They do the cost benefits deal and the rest of us have to live with it.

There are places where below grade sections of 45 flood when a lot of people turn on their sprinklers simultaneously.

Houston streets were designed to be catch basins in a heavy rain. Perhaps that is why our auto insurance is higher than most places. A heavy rain should not shut down 1/3 of a city.

The district engineer for TxDot could put a time limit and a penalty on construction time. Just like they could limit curb cuts onto state roads. Not every property owner on 1960 needs two. It causes tie ups to traffic plus wrecks.

[Bike4Life]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

How many people will be commuting to work during tropical depressions and hurricanes ? And how often does that happen anyway. I like the idea of getting rid of the elevated since it will reconnect those west side neighborhoods with downtown and help make downtown a more livable neighborhood again. My question is what will these plans do to the connectivity of Midtown and the East side hoods to DT ?..

I'd be more concerned about dumb drivers repeatedly getting into Notorious Wet Concrete, the Scourge of Upper Kirby, Claims the Shiny Red Mustang of Victim No. 3 | Swamplot

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by crone

By the mid 70's many smart people were telling us that a storm like Carla would put 10 -16 feet of water in 1 Shell Plaza. TS Allison was 25 years later. No, I don't have any faith in the people at TxDot. They do the cost benefits deal and the rest of us have to live with it.

There are places where below grade sections of 45 flood when a lot of people turn on their sprinklers simultaneously.

Houston streets were designed to be catch basins in a heavy rain. Perhaps that is why our auto insurance is higher than most places. A heavy rain should not shut down 1/3 of a city.

The district engineer for TxDot could put a time limit and a penalty on construction time. Just like they could limit curb cuts onto state roads. Not every property owner on 1960 needs two. It causes tie ups to traffic plus wrecks.

I am not giving carte blanche to Tx-Dot for this entire plan but the removal of the Pierce elevated would be an esthetical improvement to say the least.

Originally Posted by Bike4Life

I'd be more concerned about dumb drivers repeatedly getting into Notorious Wet Concrete, the Scourge of Upper Kirby, Claims the Shiny Red Mustang of Victim No. 3 | Swamplot

I think this along with the drivers that hit the light rail trains, answers crones question as to why Houston has the highest insurance rates in the state

[case44]

Originally Posted by 14Bricks

Why does this sound like a disaster waiting to happen. The traffic will be horrendous during construction.



I-45 would move, sink and shift from Pierce Elevated in TxDOT plan - Houston Chronicle

It would be very dangerous, and you'd have to widen quite drastically those spaces along I-10 and I-69 (old U.S. 59) by doubling the capacity. It's practically not worth it. Such an undertaking would cause bottlenecks like nothing the downtown area had seen before.

Plus, I like the view of downtown from I-45 on the approach from the north and that approach to downtown is the best of any highway in Texas. Why not just rebuild the Pierce Elevated?