Repairs, safety upgrades slated for Washington traffic circle
The bumpy ride through the roundabout at Washington and Westcott should be smoothed out by summer, Houston officials said, as a third attempt to improve the circle and nearby safety upgrades come amid growing interest in crossing into Memorial Park.
Reconstruction of the road could begin as soon as the end of the May, according to Mike Wahl, assistant director of transportation and drainage operations for Houston Public Works. Crews likely will descend as the school year for Memorial Elementary School ends, he said.
Drivers will not see any changes in how they move through the roundabout, created in 2003 to replace a traffic light. They may, however, notice fewer bumps and a slower trip when crews remove the bricks from the roadway and replace them with asphalt and raised crosswalks at all three of the median-separated roadways that converge as Westcott turns into Washington.
“People just want a smooth ride,” said District C Councilwoman Abbie Kamin, who represents the area and made the roundabout and other intersections a priority when she took office in 2020.
Though the bricks were an aesthetic touch supported by the neighborhood when the project first was completed, then redone about a decade ago during the last repaving, they have proved problematic. They did not slow drivers and instead led to an uneven, sometimes jarring trip.
“Prettiness doesn’t always mean it is the best,” Wahl said.
Construction will come with some hassles, however.
“We are going to fully close down this area for two weekends in a row,” Wahl said, though the schedule is not finalized.
In addition to asphalt and slightly raising crosswalks to slow vehicles and make paint and reflectors more visible, the project includes some additional drainage work and remaking the curbs on the interior of the roundabout, which often take a
beating from the heavy traffic and heavy trucks.
Those cars and trucks, meanwhile, will move a little slower because of the crosswalks and a slight narrowing of the approaching lanes, Wahl said.
“They whole thing is a safety issue,” Wahl said. “We are narrowing it through striping and when people see a narrower lane they slow down.”
In addition to the roundabout, the planned work includes changes at Blossom and Westcott, three blocks south of the Washington circle. A popular crossing for cyclists and runners headed to Memorial Park, the changes will facilitate and make safer what many users already are doing — crossing one direction of Westcott, then waiting in the median for traffic to clear.
“You cannot do it all at once,” said Michelle Androff, who often runs from her Rice Military townhome into the park. “The cars are just moving too fast.”
The work will add refuge islands — places for pedestrians and cyclists to wait in the middle of the street — on both sides of Blossom, which will line up with new sidewalk ramps at the corners.
When city officials offered the neighborhood options for Blossom, which ends in Memorial Park at one of the entrances to the Eastern Glades area of the park, residents said it was vital not to shut off the turn to drivers.
“It is kind of the best of both worlds,” Kamin said, noting the plan has protection for pedestrians but does not prohibit turns.
Blossom is one of a number of connections to Memorial Park where people lured by new trails and features are seeking some enhancement. Drivers have easy access because of Memorial Drive, which bisects the park, but for runners and cyclists the trip can be troublesome. From Buffalo Bayou at Shepherd, where the current trail system ends at River Oaks, sidewalks are spotty and often narrow. On other sides, the park is bounded by Interstate 10 and Loop 610, which can be challenging to cross on major streets.
“Riding your bike to the park shouldn’t require bravery,” officials with the advocacy group BikeHouston wrote on an online petition urging investment in additional routes.
The petition, as of Monday, had about 1,000 signatures, advocating for better access, especially after the recent opening of the land bridge spanning Memorial Drive.
The petition comes as a number of projects promise some improvements, eventually, including at Washington and I-10 where the Metropolitan Transit Authority plans a bus rapid transit stop and the Texas Department of Transportation has proposed a trail link from the Cohn Street pedestrian bridge over the freeway into the park.
South of Memorial, park and Uptown officials have planned a connection from San Felipe north into the park via Briar Hollow Lane, close to the railroad and utility lines that cut a swath through the green space.
Any added connections are an improvement, cyclist Larry Reardon said, but he is holding out for the missing link to his First Ward home.
“It’s never made sense to me we have this great (Buffalo) Bayou trail system, and it just stops short,” said Reardon, 42. “It’s almost like they want you to have to drive.”