Houston highway construction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Houston, Texas, USA, with a population of 2.1 million, has undergone ongoing construction to serve the many thousands of cars using the 6 main freeways, most built in the 1950s and 1960s. The freeways and tollways are:
- Interstate 610
- Interstate 10
- Interstate 45
- Beltway 8
- U.S. Highway 59
- U.S. Highway 290
- Texas State Highway 288
- Westpark Tollway
Some other popular secondary highways and roads include:
These freeways serve the many hundreds of suburbs in the outlying areas of Houston.
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[edit] The Katy Freeway: 2002-2009
The Katy Freeway, or the western strech of Interstate 10 from Katy to Interstate 610, is under major renovation for reasons of traffic capacity & age.
First built in the 1960s, the Katy Freeway is in weared shape and needs a facelift to appeal to the evergrowing West Houston Area. The freeway holds about 240,000 cars per day, and only has 6 mainlanes.
[edit] Clearing land
In 2002, an old freight railway running beside the freeway was demolished, providing extra space for future construction. This was the first publicly seen part of the project. The railway, probably a freight railway, was abandoned a few years earlier.
Proof of a freight railway can bee seen here [1]. A branchoff of the railway (the brown line down the middle) can be seen ending at a docking station near a Roomstore furniture store (the large building on the right). This is the only part of the railway left, probably owned by Roomstore.
Also, some extra land was cleared of grass and was smoothened out for extra mainlanes near Old Katy Road.
[edit] Construction
By 2004, new overpasses were under construction and supporting poles were being built. In 2005, concrete was finally laid in some areas, and the Beltway 8 intersection was making progress. Some sections of the new mainlaines (going east only) were opened to the public in late '05, and westbound in the summer of 2006.
Also in 2006, some overpasses were almost completed and certian areas being painted near I-610. The continuing construction causes traffic and lane closures across the freeway.
[edit] The Gulf Freeway: 2004-2008
To handle the large traffic flow to and from Galveston and NASA Johnson Space Center, projects on the Gulf Freeway have begun to partly rebuild the freeway, first incorperated in the 1950s.
[edit] Construction
The City of Houston only owns a small chunk of land in the area, so the city's contributation to the freeway is limited. The city has covered a half-mile area with asphalt to smoothen out the road, but hasn't planned to expand lane capacity.
Father south, some new exit ramps and overpasses are under construction, but only a small amount. These projects are making slow progress, and it isn't known if any further projects, to demolish or build, are underway.
[edit] Interstate 610: 2003-2007
To ease the heavy traffic around the Post Oak and Galleria areas south of Interstate 10, a large construction project to expand the freeway is almost complete.
[edit] Construction
The focus of the freeway shifted to a different view, to provide a large, comfortable freeway for drivers and also nice architecture for the upscale uptown district.
The new freeway is seen as an expantion of the Katy Freeway Project, due to the similarity in architecture within both projects.
A very complex problem for drivers and builders, the project called for a very large system of exit and entrance ramps and a wide, smooth freeway. The largest problem was around the Memorial Drive/Woodway intersection, where traffic was clogged numerous times due to lane closures. Other areas included the Katy Freeway entrance ramps (both east and west), where both exits were closed many times for construction.
The project officialy finshed in September 2006, where mayor Bill White cut the opening ribbion on the Memorial Drive exit ramp. Some finishing touches continued afterwards, yet the I-10/I-610 junction is still far from completion.
[edit] Future projects
There are future projects which haven't been started yet.
[edit] Interstate 69
During the expantion of Interstate 69 into Texas, the freeway could follow many possible routes in Houston. The most resonable one is to have it follow the route of Highway 59, but this decision hasn't been confirmed yet. Other possible routes include Beltway 8 or Interstate 610.
The main idea is to have I-69 follow a highway that has already been constructed. Demolshing homes for the construction of the freeway would lead to a strong opposition from residents and would decrease land value in neighborhoods.
[edit] Hardy Toll Road
Discussion has already started on expanding the infamous Hardy Toll Road, the strip of toll road running parallel to Interstate 45 (from North Houston to Interstate 610), into downtown Houston.
The advantage of this decision would be a fast traffic flow from downtown into George Bush Intercontinental Airport, one of the many stops on the northern route. Even through discussions are showing a good chance of the plan, no construction plans or routes have been confirmed yet.
[edit] External links
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