City will remove median, curbs on Houston Avenue

Houston Public Works is reversing course on the concrete median and curbs it installed on Houston Avenue in December, electing instead to remove them after less than two months.

“Houston Public Works will begin improvements along Houston Avenue starting in early February,” reads a Houston Public Works statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, by Axios reporter Jay R. Jordan.

“These improvements will include the removal of the concrete median and curbs on Houston Avenue that reduced lane capacity and restricted vehicles from turning into properties based on their direction of traffic. The project will effectively restore the roadway to the way it operated previously.”

The statement says this decision will benefit drivers such as first responders and bus drivers and that the department will embark on a new study to see what it can do to improve safety for nondrivers.

Mario Castillo, City Council member for District H, posted Friday night on X that he disagrees with the decision to remove the median curbs.

“I do not support removing the improvements along Houston Ave. If something isn’t working with the project, modify it, don’t waste taxpayer money. District CMs need to be included in these decisions. I will be fighting to ensure safety improvements return to Houston Ave. quickly,” Castillo wrote.

The decision, which was announced Friday afternoon, bookends a week that started Monday with a pickup striking and killing a woman in downtown Houston and a public works leader resigning.

BikeHouston Executive Director Joe Cutrufo said the woman’s death is an example of the lack of safety for pedestrians in the city.

“We have a mayor who ran on public safety, and now that we’ve seen someone run over and killed three blocks from City Hall, some people might expect to see more urgency from City Hall,” Cutrufo said.