Vote stalls on University BRT route

Public dislikes planned railroad overpass; Metro says project is likely to be approved

A decision on the preferred path for Houston’s longest bus rapid transit line will wait a couple weeks longer following community outcry regarding a planned railroad overpass.

Metropolitan Transit Authority’s board of directors delayed approval of a preferred route for the University Corridor BRT project, the longest bus rapid transit project planned in the region as part of the agency’s long-range plan.

An approval of the preferred line will come “in the next week or two weeks,” Metro Chairman Sanjay Ramabhadran said, as the agency tries to line up federal funding and approvals.

“There is a lot of ways to go before we start building things,” Ramabhadran said.

The line would create a route for rapid buses from the Tidwell Transit Center, south along Lockwood to the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, then west mostly along Wheeler, Richmond and Westpark to the Westchase Park and Ride. Buses would travel in their own lanes, separated from vehicular traffic, in some cases taking an existing lane for cars and trucks.

If the project’s design is finalized and federal approval — and money — arrive as Metro has anticipated, construction on the $1.5 billion project could begin late next year or early 2025, with buses operating along portions of the route by 2028.

Approval of the preferred route is significant because it is the specific location Metro will plan to build, and any adjustments would deviate from that plan if issues arise.

Though the project stretches 25 miles, it is a dozen or so blocks in the East End that are dividing Metro and residents in the area of the proposed overpass.

“The neighborhood fabric is being sacrificed for this overpass,” Laura Vargas told a Metro committee on Tuesday.

Transit officials said approving the route will not keep them from working to make the project more appealing to riders and residents alike “It is certainly not the end of the process,” said Yuhayna Mahmud, project manager for the University Corridor.

Design of the line is 30 percent complete, she said.

Eastwood residents, however, have seen enough to organize their concerns over a planned overpass on Lockwood from Rusk to Sherman, spanning Harrisburg Boulevard, the parallel Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the Green Line light rail. Dozens have shown up at various Metro public meetings over the past month to discuss the project, including a meeting

specifically to discuss the overpass Tuesday night. The concern for many is that the overpass would undermine the community by separating the buses from traffic while physically dividing the neighborhood.

“It should be for the people and not over the people,” overpass critic Tina Brady told Metro officials Tuesday.

The delay was welcomed by elected officials, who said it allows for transit planners and neighborhood groups to talk more and, perhaps, settle on a plan palatable to all.

“I believe Metro does owe it to the residents of the East End to build consensus,” Precinct Two Commissioner Adrian Garcia said.

Citing the ongoing debate over the impacts of the Interstate 45 rebuild, Garcia said Metro also must consider what its design will do to communities.

“Overpasses tend to be divisive and tend to divide communities even further,” Garcia said.

Vargas, an architect who lives about one block from the proposed overpass, said Metro officials need to do more to develop alternatives to the overpass that minimize the impact on the area. She urged them to not approve a route until more analysis is done and other options evaluated and shared with the public.

Metro officials, however, say they have examined alternatives and an overpass is the best solution. The freight tracks, the blockage of which is a continual complaint from Eastwood residents and others, mean an atgrade crossing cannot happen without compromising the speed of the bus service.

“It would not provide a rapid transit service at all,” Mahmud said.

She said officials also explored an underpass, but building beneath the railroad tracks likely would consume more land along Lockwood; elevated lanes for the buses would allow street traffic to flow partially beneath the overpass. Separating all traffic from the railroad tracks, meanwhile, means an even larger overpass that many in the community oppose because it would result in the loss of more trees and homes.

While opposed to the overpass, some of the outcry focuses more on making sure Metro shows its work to the community before dismissing some options, and demonstrating more ideas to solve the problem.

“Our community has asked repeatedly that a non-overpass option be found, and we believe one exists,” said Danielle Laperriere, president of the Eastwood Civic Association.

The debate is not the first between Metro and East End residents over an overpass. Transit officials offered to build an underpass along Harrisburg as part of the Green Line light rail project after the community balked at a towering overpass for the trains.

Metro, however, reneged on the plan when environmental analyses showed soil contamination from underground storage tanks — which dot industrial areas around the East End — would make an underpass too costly and time-consuming. Community leaders accused Metro of going back on its word, but the overpass was built over community objections to complete the Green Line.

Though the Harrisburg decision was nearly nine years ago, and the towering span opened in 2017, the frustration over it and the light rail construction in the area lingers.

“You see nothing but closed businesses,” Harrisburg critic Mark Rodriguez told the board Thursday.

Facing freight train delays, pocked streets and the potential for a dividing overpass, what the community wants are proposals that can address many of the issues in an agreeable way, even if that means leveraging funds from Metro and others, such as Houston to rebuild streets or federal funds aimed at removing at-grade train crossings.

“We have to think beyond just this project,” said Veronica Chapa Gorczynski, president of the East End Management District. “We are a community, and our infrastructure is as integrated as our community is, and we can do better.”

If that comes with some hardto-swallow changes, some residents said they will feel more part of the process, even if that means an overpass.

“If we can come to the same conclusion that this is the best thing for the community, then we can live with that,” said resident Reese Campbell.