Freeway project planned on Spur 5 near UH

The first step of Houston’s next freeway is taking shape, provided highway officials finalize their plans for almost $94 million worth of work along Spur 5 near the University of Houston.

A project to extend the spur from its intersection with Interstate 45 to Griggs Road could start in the late spring, after bids on the project were opened last week in Austin. Houston-based Williams Brothers Construction, a mainstay in local road projects, was the low bidder at $93.9 million, slightly below what the Texas Department of Transportation estimated.

The work, expected to take more than two years, will lengthen the existing Spur 5 past the UH campus and Old Spanish Trail to Griggs, about two miles south. A popular detour route along I-45 to the university campus and other points, the spur is considered a key relief route byTx DOT, and connecting it to G rig gs would help dive rt some traffic from I-45.

Eventually, TxDOT plans to extend the spur at least as far south as Dixie Drive, just south of Loop 610, with a connection to the loop. That segment, perhaps, could benefit from TxDOT’s plans to shift money to other priorities as work stalls on the major I-45 rebuild planned north of downtown Houston.

For some, the work to extend the road fulfills a long-unfinished planned freeway in Houston, potentially going as far south as Alvin. Some, however, worry TxDOT and regional officials are moving too fast to build a project many in the community are unaware of.

“There are somany aspects of the project we are wondering about,” Katrina Blest, a resident of the Fonde neighborhood

tucked between I-45 and Old Spanish Trail, told the Houston-Galveston Area Council’s transportation council on Jan. 27.

Blest said many in the community are concerned the project and the four

highway-grade lanes it will create will leave them surrounded by freeways, affecting everything from air quality to bike and pedestrian access in the community.

Further, some residents question the need for another freeway, following work at I-45 and Loop 610 and the use of Spur 5’s

northern segment to create a new interchange at I-45 and Interstate 69.

“Much more traffic flow has improved because of those two projects,” resident Molly Salazar told the H-GAC council on Jan. 27.