Region gets say on I-45 expansion
Houston will have a say in a regional response to design differences in the planned widening of Interstate 45 within the city — and so will Sugar Land, Montgomery County and Waller County.
After voting last month to establish a working group focused on improving the plans by the Texas Department of Transportation for rebuilding I-45, members of the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s Transportation Policy Council approved the members of the panel Friday over the objections of critics and Harris County officials.
“I do take exception that those who are going to be most impacted
are not as represented,” Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia said.
The project to rebuild I-45 from downtown north to Beltway 8 and redesign the freeway system around the central business district has massive implications for regional travel because the interstate is the spine of the area’s road system.
Construction of downtown portions of the project are prepped to start within two years, following a handful of federal and state approvals expected in the coming months.
Along its route, however, the project has faced increasing scrutiny because of the displacement effects on residents and businesses in low-income and minority communities, flood control in more than a dozen Houston neighborhoods and local air quality.
Houston, via a letter from Mayor Sylvester Turner to TxDOT officials, has sought changes to the project north of downtown to ease those effects.
City officials want frontage roads in some areas eliminated or reduced to two lanes, and a greater reliance on transit instead of carpools by making the center lanes bus-only rather than HOV.
TxDOT has said it is studying the proposal, but said that after years of discussion it is committed to moving its designs along to keep construction on track while addressing possible changes later.
Regional officials with the transportation council ultimately will decide whether $100 million or more of locally controlled federal money is spent on the project as phases begin over the next five years, a sum that while small in comparison of the $7 billion-plus cost, significantly affects TxDOT’s ability to leverage state-controlled dollars.
That leaves the council to support or not support the changes as a condition of its funding, or allow TxDOT to move forward with its own plans.
The 16-person working group approved Friday includes some Houston-centric officials — including AtLarge Councilman David Robinson, Metropolitan Transit Authority Chairwoman Carrin Patman and Port Houston Executive Director Roger Guenther.
Half of the members, however, hail from outside Harris County, including Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman, Waller County Commissioner Justin Beckendorff and Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough.
Galveston County Commissioner Ken Clark, chairman of the transportation council, said his aim in appointing people to the group was to reflect the entire region’s interest in the project.
“Their commuters are driving their freeway roads all over the place,” Clark said. “I thought it was important we had a group that had that … a critical working group if you will.”
Zimmerman, who last month argued Houstonarea officials needed to put the project “in a positive light,” noted that the regional body’s role was to reflect the entire eight-county area.
“The intent was to keep politics out of this,” Zimmerman said.
Critics, who have said for two years that their concerns have been heard by TxDOT with little progress toward resolving the issues, said a regional group that includes no members from the project area speaking directly for residents and neighborhoods indicates their concerns are being ignored.
“This proposal is inequitable and unacceptable,” said Jonathan Brooks, director of policy and planning for LINK Houston, a local advocacy group that has organized some of the opposition to the project.
Harrison Humphreys, who oversees transportation policy for Air Alliance Houston, noted some of the suburban appointees have “shown open hostility to members of the public” advocating for changes to the plan.
Those concerns, however, were outweighed by the need to be collaborative and reflect the regional importance of the project, many said, including Robinson and Patman who support the city’s efforts to change the project.
“I think we can do some real good finding common ground here,” Patman said.
Unlike most issues before the transportation council, however, the working group did not enjoy unanimous support as representatives standing in for Garcia and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo voted against its makeup.