Committee yields on $100M for I-45 plan
Plans to overhaul Interstate 45 north of downtown Houston inched forward this week, but not without some hesitation and a slew of caveats by some local officials who have been asked to commit $100 million to the massive project.
Approval by the Houston-Galveston Area Council Technical Advisory Committee came Wednesday with many members echoing lingering concerns over the project as currently envisioned by the Texas Department of Transportation. Among those are how the agency addresses environmental issues and communicates with the public.
“It is important to recognize that things TxDOT has done in the past are not going to be sufficient for this project,” said Carol Lewis, a TAC committee member and director of the Center for Transportation Training and Research at Texas Southern University.
Ultimately, the technical committee approved the committal of $100 million in locally controlled federal funds to the center segment of the I-45 project, per a request from TxDOT. The final decision rests with H-GAC’s Transportation Policy Council, which meets July 26.
If approved next week, the money will be set aside for the project in upcoming spending plans, ready for use once construction of the $1.2 billion segment from Interstate 10 north to Loop 610 begins, likely in early 2024.
The segment is the center portion of a massive, $7 billion-plus remaking of I-45 from the central business district north to Beltway 8, including a complete redesign of the downtown freeway system and most interchanges. The redesign would shift I-45 to follow Interstate 69 along the east side of the central business district, removing the elevated segment along Pierce Street.
As federal approval for the project nears, TxDOT has faced increasing scrutiny from a variety of advocacy and neighborhood groups. Opponents say the existing plan does not go far enough to reduce negative effects on neighborhoods already torn in half by the freeway and exacerbates problems related to air quality and economic development in long-ignored communities. In some places, the project is set to claim much-needed affordable housing.
Though TxDOT has done historic levels of public engagement over the years, more than is required by federal and state guidelines, the consensus among many local officials and advocates is it that it has failed to reach some communities.
“I question whether we have done real effective public engagement,” said Veronica Chapa Gorczynski, president of the East End Management District.
Though officials have worked with local agencies and others, such as Houston Housing Authority, Gorczynski said that does not necessarily capture the concerns of residents who live in neighborhoods such as the Northside or Independence Heights who need affordable housing close to jobs.
“We have to plan for them,” Gorczynski said. “When we do not plan for them … you create other social problems.”
Gorcsynski joined Oni Blair, executive director of LINK Houston, as the only members of the technical committee opposed to committing the $100 million to the project. An attempt by Blair to delay the approval fell short, as TxDOT officials have said approval is needed now so the Texas Transportation Commission can consider adding the project to its upcoming 10-year Unified Transportation Plan, which is set for approval in August.
“There truly is no time to delay,” said Patrick Gant, schematic design supervisor for TxDOT’s Houston district.
Those who supported the approval did so with a lot of caveats, however, noting that more work is needed to overcome public opinion.
“You sound like a used car salesman trying to sell us a product,” Houston Public Works Deputy Director Jeff Weatherford told Gant. “You have got to get the public’s buy-in.”
Weatherford said the freeway rebuild “needs to happen in some form or fashion,” but encouraged TxDOT to focus less on detailing what outreach it has done, and more on what the project can do to remedy existing problems.
The approval is not a final word on whether the freeway project is built, and not even the last time HGAC will have to vote on it.
Local officials must add the $100 million to the region’s short-term transportation plan, also approved by the transportation council. That approval would not happen for a project in 2024 for about another two years.
The resolution, if approved by the regional council next week, notes some of those milestones so officials could be assured they had options if TxDOT did not adequately address community concerns.
“I know there is a real fear that it looks like we are green-lighting this project and we will never see anything about it, which is why we have some of the language,” said Alan Clark, director of transportation planning for HGAC.