I-45 work moves south
Growth makes widening crucial; extension to be in two phases
GALVESTON — Two major projects in a seemingly perpetual effort to unclog Interstate 45 south of Beltway 8 officially ended Thursday, allowing work to begin on another section of a plan to eventually widen the freeway all the way to Galveston to ease congestion in a rapidly growing region.
“They have been working on that freeway since I was 5 years old. That’s 62 years ago,” League City Mayor Pat Hallisey said.
Hallisey was among federal, state and local officials who braved wind and wet weather to gather atop the NASA Bypass to mark the completion of two projects for widening the Gulf Freeway to five lanes: A $77.5 million project from Beltway 8 to FM 2351, and a $93 million project from FM 2351 to Bay Area Boulevard.
Texas Transportation Department officials marked completion of the two projects and the beginning of a third — the $100 million widening to five lanes of I-45 from NASA Road 1 to FM 518 — by handing batons to Hallisey and a dozen other officials.
Officials were able to accelerate the work so the upcoming segments could proceed because of the additional money for highways that state voters approved in 2014 and 2015.
The Houston area received $447 million, including the bulk of the money for the next phase of I-45 work.
The newly widened lanes end in Webster, but the next section from NASA Road 1 to FM 518, expected to be completed by December 2021, runs through Hallisey’s League City.
“They did the first two phases so fast it made your
head spin,” Hallisey said. “It was only six years it took to complete.”
The freeway expansion will bring economic expansion, Hallisey said. “Highways and mobility are one of the big things for League City and the state is doing it right,” he said.
At-large City Councilman Mike Knox, who also attended the ceremony, applauded the freeway widening but remarked on the seemingly endless construction that inconveniences drivers.
“I-45 has been under construction since before you and I were born,” he said. “There is always a positive and a negative, but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.”
The positives are good for business, Knox said. “Time is money and that’s a real deal,” he said. “It does save money for businesses to have their goods and materials move faster.”
HOV project continues
Though TxDOT officials declared the two projects completed, work is continuing on extending HOV lanes from Scarsdale Boulevard south to NASA Road 1.
The HOV extension will be completed in two phases: the first from Scarsdale to El Dorado, is expected to be completed by the end of summer; the second from El Dorado to NASA Road 1, to be completed by next spring.
A closure is scheduled from 9 a.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday to complete the painting of lines from Fuqua Street to Dixie Farm Road.
TxDOT spokeswoman Deidrea George said there is a short section near Dixie Farm Road where the five lanes become four before opening to five again. Engineers were not immediately available to say when or if the short four-lane section would be expanded to five lanes.
“I think it’s going to be good for the county because it’s going to improve mobility,” Galveston County Commissioner Stephen D. Holmes said. Holmes also mentioned the constant construction, joking that “it seems like a perpetual project on I-45 somewhere.”
The growth in Galveston County and southern Harris County makes the expansion projects important, Holmes said.
Harris County’s population is expected to swell to 5.47 million by 2030, from a projected 4.7 million in 2020. Galveston County is projected to grow to 412,000 by 2030, up from 358,000 in 2020.
TxDOT recorded average daily traffic of 142,000 trips between Beltway 8 and FM 2351 in 2014. That number is project to increase to 239,000 by 2035.
From FM 2351 the average daily traffic is expected to grow from 120,000 to 206,000 over the same period. Traffic in the newly begun section from NASA Road 1 to FM 518 is projected to grow from 92,000 to 155,00.
Hearings scheduled
Completion of the three projects will finish the Harris County leg of the plan for widening I-45 from Beltway 8 to the foot of the Galveston Causeway. Work began in January in Galveston County on expanding the freeway from FM 518 to FM 517 from three to four lanes.
The $122 million widening project underway in Galveston County is estimated to be completed in December 2020, TxDOT spokesman Danny Perez said.
Two other projects to complete the interstate widening to the Galveston Causeway are awaiting funding, Perez said, but TxDOT is moving ahead with planning.
A public hearing already has been conducted for a proposed section from FM 518 to FM 1764, and a public hearing is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. June 13 at La Marque High School for a proposed section from FM 1764 to the foot of the Causeway.
Two other massive freeway projects also will start soon as a result of the congestion relief money from the state. Next week, TxDOT will open bids on adding a lane in each direction to Interstate 10 in Waller County. Construction is estimated to cost $143.7 million.
In August, officials plan to award a $247.9 million contract to rebuild portions of the Loop 610 interchange with Interstate 69, also U.S. 59 in the Houston area, near Uptown.