$30M going to road repairs
7 streets around TSU, UH set for improvements
Harris County officials said Tuesday that they will invest $30 million in street and drainage improvements around the University of Houston and Texas Southern University campuses in Houston’s Third Ward to enhance pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular access to the area while also reducing street flooding.
County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, who represents Precinct 1, is financing the upgrades, which target seven streets around the campuses, with a focus on Cleburne Street from Texas 288 to TSU and Cullen Boulevard from Interstate 45 to North McGregor Boulevard. Some residents of the area have long called for infrastructure and road upgrades in what they say is a neglected neighborhood.
“I believe not only should we have complete communities, we ought to have complete streets,” Ellis said Tuesday in a joint press conference with May-
or Sylvester Turner. “And in addition to a place to ride bikes, a place for people to walk, a place for people … who are in vehicles to get to where they’re going.”
Ellis said he wanted to “make it a real university city.”
The exact time line of the project is not clear but it will be divided into two phases, said Harris County Engineer John Blount. The first phase will focus on making immediate repairs to the streets or identifying missing sidewalks. On Tuesday, Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to negotiate with two engineering firms to help get the work started.
Also Tuesday, the court authorized the purchase of the Riverside General Hospital in the Third Ward.
The TSU and UH road projects follow similar efforts by Ellis’ predecessor, Gene Locke, who in 2016 said he would invest about $13 million to fix roads and sidewalks around NRG Park in advance of Super Bowl LI.
Turner termed the new projects “a wonderful coming together of mutual interests,” noting that they fall within one of the city’s so-called Complete Communities, which are neighborhoods that have been singled out for targeted investment and revitalization.
“If the improvements in these areas were just relying on the city, it would be highly incomplete, but that’s where Commissioner Rodney Ellis stepped in,” Turner said. The mayor later joked, “I just love me some Harris County, and Precinct 1 is just the darling.”
The city does not plan to contribute to the projects, Turner said, but recently invested $12.3 million in a road reconstruction project on Almeda and has planned additional street and sidewalk work in the area.
The mayor added that he intends to direct a portion of the city’s federal community development funding toward projects of interest to Ellis.
“He and I are going to be sitting down and looking at some things in Precinct 1 of interest to Commissioner Ellis, and then we will direct some of those (Community Development Block Grant) dollars over into areas of interest to Precinct 1,” Turner said. “That’s the exchange.”
Other streets eyed for improvement include: Blodgett from Scott to Ennis, Attucks from Cleburne to Wheeler, Wheeler from Cullen to Scott, Elgin from Scott to I-45 and Holman from Scott to Cullen.
University officials applauded the investment.
“It’s much-needed in our community,” University of Houston Regent Paula Mendoza said. “We support the partnership. We wouldn’t be the University of Houston without it, Texas Southern as well.”