Leaders must stop TxDOT’s I-45 expansion

“Not needed,” the signs say. “Not wanted!”

In Independence Heights, in Near Northside, in East Downtown, in Fifth Ward, in Third Ward, you can see these signs telling the Texas Department of Transportation that the proposed widening of Interstate 45 is the wrong project for the city. I have one in my front yard, too.

“Stop,” the signs say, in bright red letters.

TxDOT hasn’t. It doesn’t seem as though the agency will. More than a year has passed since dozens and dozens of concerned community members like me, advocates and former elected officials packed a meeting room to show our opposition to TxDOT’s plans to reroute I-45 around downtown and expand it for 24 miles out to the suburbs.

For five hours, we spoke up about the Houstonians who will lose their homes and businesses when TxDOT seizes their property, including 160 single-family residences, 919 multi-family residential units and 344 businesses. We spoke up about the likelihood that higher speeds and more lanes would bring more deaths on the region’s already deadly roads, which has been acknowledged by other states including Oregon. We spoke up about the injustice of school children who will be exposed to more air pollution that makes it harder for them to breathe and learn.

All along, TxDOT has said that their community engagement on this project, known as the North Houston Highway Improvement Project, has been unprecedented. But when will TxDOT actually listen to what the community is saying?

Back in May, Mayor Sylvester Turner outlined in a letter sent to TxDOT Commissioner Laura Ryan an alternative vision for the project. This vision came out of the city’s own months-long effort of community engagement.

The very same residents who stand to be impacted the most donated hours and hours of our time to help planners reimagine the project to avoid the mistakes TxDOT made in the past. We came up with a vision for a better project that preserves communities of color like Independence Heights and Near Northside, long divided by freeway projects. The plan avoids the massive displacement and the ensuing loss of tax revenue for the city, improves accessibility and safety for all people and moves everyone, whether they are taking the bus or driving their car, more efficiently. Harris County commissioners and numerous other elected officials endorsed the vision.

TxDOT went ahead and published a Final Environmental Impact Assessment for the project and asked for more comments. Despite years of input from us already, the final impact assessment presents a very similar project to what they first proposed in 2017. The vision that came out of the city’s efforts hasn’t been incorporated, and they haven’t committed to the parameters clearly defined in Turner’s letter.

Once the comment period closes Dec. 9, TxDOT will be able to condemn land in the right-of-way, finalize details and begin construction. They have said discussions of possible changes will continue, but the agency is thinking about “refinements,” not revisions.

We have made it clear we do not want a project that will displace thousands of people for the false promise of shorter commute times. That hasn’t happened with the widened Katy Freeway, and it won’t happen with a wider I-45.

We have made it clear we don’t want a project that is fundamentally the same as the ones in the 1960s that contributed to the entrenchment of inequality and primarily affected Houston’s communities of color. The impact of the proposed highway is clear: Black and brown lives do not matter as much as the lives of the people who they have projectedmight move to the region one day.

It is now up to Turner, the city and county elected officials to fight for the people who voted to put them into their positions of power.

They have seen the community engagement. They heard the intense opposition. They know that what they do now will set the tone for transportation planning in the region for decades.

Turner said, “It is crucial that every opportunity is taken to design and construct the best possible project.” TxDOT has not put forward the best possible project. Until they do, unless they do, will our leaders have the courage to stand up for us and tell TxDOT to stop?