Uptown group seeks more funds for bus lanes
A plan for faster bus service along Post Oak, the centerpiece of a larger project to remake Uptown’s Main Street, continues to divide its supporters and transit skeptics, even as work accelerates and commuters brace for limited lanes through the holiday season.
The latest dust-up over the dedicated lanes is over a request to the Transportation Policy Council of the Houston Galveston Area Council to commit an additional $15.9 million in federal funding to the project. The Uptown Management District and its associated tax increment reinvestment zone, the agency rebuilding Post Oak, also would commit to an additional $15.9 million.
The council is scheduled to meet and decide the issue on Oct. 27.
The request has drawn ire from skeptics, who contend the two bus-only lanes planned for the center of Post Oak will ruin traffic patterns and draw few riders. Many have called it the latest transit boondoggle for the Houston area, which they say will end up costing taxpayers more and provide limited benefit.
“Trust me, this will not be the last time Uptown comes back with its hand out,” former mayoral candidate Bill King wrote.
Supporters of the Post Oak re-
notably officials at the Uptown Management District, argue that the request is an attempt to capture more federal money, not an increase in the project’s costs.
“This project is on budget and fully funded,” said John Breeding, the management district’s president.
Breeding cast the request as a way to shift more of the funding to federal sources, freeing up local money for additional work related to the project.
The dedicated bus lanes are part of a broader remake of Post Oak. The street will continue to have three lanes in each direction with turn lanes. Officials also are adding landscaping and large trees to provide shade, new pedestrian street lighting and wider sidewalks.
Some costs fluctuated
The project budget remains estimated at $192.5 million, though some costs have fluctuated.
Regional transportation officials agreed to $90.5 million in federally-allowed funding for the dedicated bus lane, with Uptown paying half that and the rest coming from the H-GAC-controlled federal funds.
After adding a host of new items or increased costs, Uptown now says $122.3 million of the project should be eligible for federal funding.
Breeding wants H-GAC to cover half of that $31.8 million difference with federal funds the Houston area receives for transportation projects.
The additional items cover a litany of details related to the dedicated lanes, ranging from $7.8 million for lighting and light poles, $9.8 million for design of the lanes and nearly $5.2 million for communications systems, security and ticket vending machines required by Metropolitan Transit Authority, which will buy and operate the buses for the route.
Some of the items were not anticipated in the original budget. Absent new funding, Breeding said the project would scale back on some other items to remain at $192.5 million in total costs.
“I think it is valid to request federal funds,” Breeding said of the amended request.
Influential opponents
A handful of elected officials that sit on the transportation council remain skeptical of the project and committing more funds. Some, including Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, have noted as residents learn more about the project, support wanes.
“I haven’t liked that project from the beginning, but if we keep adding costs to it, I think the public is going to get more and more interested in that project,” he said last month.
Emmett’s skepticism, along with that of Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack, leaves Uptown facing opposition from two influential members of the 27-person board.
Metro continues to support the project, transit board chairwoman Carrin Patman said.
Still, she said many of the specifics and the funding for the dedicated lanes is an Uptown matter.
“That is part of their responsibility,” she said.
Metro has not purchased the 14 buses needed for the route, though the agency has begun preparing for the purchase, CEO Tom Lambert said. The final, board-approved purchase would not come for a few months, with service expected to start in early 2019 at the earliest.
More disruption feared
Many riders also may need convincing. Park and ride service to Uptown is limited, compared to the routes Metro runs into downtown. Routes also are bogged down by the same heavy traffic along Post Oak — something supporters hope the bus lanes will correct.
Still, many said they prefer the direct routes they have from northwestern and southwestern Harris County communities. If the new service means they have to transfer at new transit centers in Bellaire and near Interstate 10 and Loop 610, some current riders said they would need convinc- ing.
“I’m not looking forward to it,” Patti Benesh, 58, said as she waited on a Kuykendahl park and ride bus on Tuesday.
For commuters and visitors in Uptown, the most pressing matter is not how officials pay for the street widening, landscaping and bus lanes, but how crews work on those jobs without disrupting traffic.
For months, drivers have endured bumpy, narrow lanes along many parts of Post Oak.
“It just made everything worse, and it was terrible to begin with,” said Sam Lyons, 66, who works between Post Oak and Loop 610, and travels the street almost daily.
Lyons said he was ambivalent about the overall project, hoping it would at least leave traffic a little better than before work began. He just lamented the plan to work so quickly.
“It was just so much work, I’d rather it take longer and leave less of a mess all at once,” he said.
Holiday event canceled
With the peak Christmas shopping season looming — Uptown already has pulled the plug on this year’s annual holiday lighting ceremony — Breeding said the goal is to minimize disruptions by delaying some work around Williams Tower until the first of the year and be out of the way in as many places as possible.
North of San Felipe, the new southbound lanes already are completed. Northbound lanes should be finished before Christmas. Those portions will be returned to three lanes with turn lanes.
Where construction is ongoing, at least two lanes with turn lanes will be available at all times.
“We’re going to be working very selectively,” Breeding said, noting crews can continue work on things outside the driving space, such as sidewalks and landscaping.
In front of the Camden Properties apartment building on Post Oak near Loop 610, crews are building a small portion of the final sidewalk design, including tree canopy, as a demonstration of what the entire street will look like.
“We want to give people a chance to see what it’ll be,” said Bob Ethington, director of research and economic development for the Uptown district and liaison on the Post Oak project.