‘Stop putting cars over people’: Harris County sues TxDOT over I-45 expansion project (Houston: apartment, construction)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by Spade

The cost is pretty much the only factor I agree with on why it won’t happen. Outside of that, for efficiency, heavy rail is superior to light rail as it pertains to moving more people across the city and metro in increasingly dense areas.

This is Texas. The infrastructure is third-rate--everybody saw the electric grid fail last month. The lack of transportation outside of "rubber-tire" solutions is barely perceptible to the casual visitor to the state.

Yet there is plenty of tax money to redo the 610/69 Galleria interchange. There is even talk about rebuilding an expanded Midtown Elevated on I-69. But it's a big fight to build at grade LRT and eminent domain for a few lots, but expanding the Katy Freeway ROW was a seamless process thanks to GOP support. I am a big advocate of "All of the Above"--improving highways and transit!

Back to the original topic, I-45 really needs to be redone between the Loop and the Beltway. The feeder roads around Gallery Furniture always flood during a heavy rainstorm due to poor drainage. The section inside the Loop to Downtown could be tabled for another day.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

This is Texas. The infrastructure is third-rate--everybody saw the electric grid fail last month. The lack of transportation outside of "rubber-tire" solutions is barely perceptible to the casual visitor to the state.

Yet there is plenty of tax money to redo the 610/69 Galleria interchange. There is even talk about rebuilding an expanded Midtown Elevated on I-69. But it's a big fight to build at grade LRT and eminent domain for a few lots, but expanding the Katy Freeway ROW was a seamless process thanks to GOP support. I am a big advocate of "All of the Above"--improving highways and transit!

Back to the original topic, I-45 really needs to be redone between the Loop and the Beltway. The feeder roads around Gallery Furniture always flood during a heavy rainstorm due to poor drainage. The section inside the Loop to Downtown could be tabled for another day.

Don't agree with you much but I definitely agree with you on everything here.

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by KerrTown

This is Texas. The infrastructure is third-rate--everybody saw the electric grid fail last month. The lack of transportation outside of "rubber-tire" solutions is barely perceptible to the casual visitor to the state.

Yet there is plenty of tax money to redo the 610/69 Galleria interchange. There is even talk about rebuilding an expanded Midtown Elevated on I-69. But it's a big fight to build at grade LRT and eminent domain for a few lots, but expanding the Katy Freeway ROW was a seamless process thanks to GOP support. I am a big advocate of "All of the Above"--improving highways and transit!

Back to the original topic, I-45 really needs to be redone between the Loop and the Beltway. The feeder roads around Gallery Furniture always flood during a heavy rainstorm due to poor drainage. The section inside the Loop to Downtown could be tabled for another day.

This I agree with. That stretch of 45 is the absolute worst stretch of the interstate in the metro imo. Not to mention the area is just not appealing. This is some people first impression of Houston coming from IAH into the city btw.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

This I agree with. That stretch of 45 is the absolute worst stretch of the interstate in the metro imo. Not to mention the area is just not appealing. This is some people first impression of Houston coming from IAH into the city btw.

The worst area is 610 to the Shepherd curve, the rest isn't as bad.

There's little that can be done about the appearance along 45 from the airport.

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The worst area is 610 to the Shepherd curve, the rest isn't as bad.

There's little that can be done about the appearance along 45 from the airport.

Outside of eminent-domaining a lot of the blight and rebuilding the freeway, as TxDOT is planning to do? It won't make 45 suddenly look as nice as the I-10 corridor for example, but it would help with the appearance a lot.

[kennyc05]

Originally Posted by WRM20

The worst area is 610 to the Shepherd curve, the rest isn't as bad.

There's little that can be done about the appearance along 45 from the airport.

That's not true once the right away is torn down they're going to landscape the entire stretch of freeway on both sides.

[NTexas2010]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

But let's not kids ourselves. The Katy area expanded rapidly anyway even when there wasn't the prospect of the freeway widening and congestion was an all-day nightmare. Lots of folks still moved out there, to be in Katy ISD. The widening probably encouraged more Katy area growth than what otherwise might have occurred, but a bunch still would have happened.

This is the one thing to bear in mind when trotting out the argument of induced demand. People like to point to the Katy Freeway as THE example of induced demand, when in fact the Katy area had already exploded in growth well prior to the expansion of I-10. Just look at Fulshear for reference - it boomed without the expansion of 1093.

That isn't to say that induced demand is a complete fallacy, but those that treat it as gospel would do well to understand the real life examples they cite.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by JL

Wow! First time seeing a lawsuit like this in Houston.

https://www.click2houston.com/news/l...-i-45-lawsuit/

Both are wrong,
the issue is not how lanes of highway we have, the issue is proper city planning

In my opinion the issue is we need more "high speed roads"
In Houston your options are streets with 1000s of lights or highways.

We need more roads where people feel that they can get around the city at 50MPH without getting on the highways
roads like Highway 6/FM-1960.

[LocalPlanner]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Both are wrong,
the issue is not how lanes of highway we have, the issue is proper city planning

In my opinion the issue is we need more "high speed roads"
In Houston your options are streets with 1000s of lights or highways.

We need more roads where people feel that they can get around the city at 50MPH without getting on the highways
roads like Highway 6/FM-1960.

Those can be nice for drivers if done right, but they often are both terrible for driving, and they create horrible people places. I live close to SH 6, it's an awful road, and I wouldn't want a property fronting it. The kind of road ("stroad" is the derogatory term - not a street, but not a rural road) is bad for local property access, unsafe for pedestrians who might need to get to one of those local businesses, and just not appropriate for creating a cityscape. If you're going to do this kind of facility, it needs to avoid having almost all direct property access. You need a form of frontage road for that which moves max 30-35 mph.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

Those can be nice for drivers if done right, but they often are both terrible for driving, and they create horrible people places. I live close to SH 6, it's an awful road, and I wouldn't want a property fronting it. The kind of road ("stroad" is the derogatory term - not a street, but not a rural road) is bad for local property access, unsafe for pedestrians who might need to get to one of those local businesses, and just not appropriate for creating a cityscape. If you're going to do this kind of facility, it needs to avoid having almost all direct property access. You need a form of frontage road for that which moves max 30-35 mph.

We need north-south and east-west arterial passages that are not interrupted by lights every quarter mile. A good example is Allen Parkway which gets you 5-7 miles out of central Houston before it bogs down in signaled intersections. And it's not an eyesore.



Problem is, putting those in after the fact is extremely expensive if not impossible due to existing properties. And putting them ahead of time is seen as a waste of money. We seldom build road capacity before it is needed. I agree completely on the limited property access and frontage roads. SH 6 should have been limited access all along but to do that now would be very expensive.