North Houston Highway Improvement Project (project resumed March 2023)

[MaxConcrete]

At today's commission meeting, the commission decided to receive public comment on the removal of funding for NHHIP. Comment will be received starting July 9, and the plan is to have a decision at the August meeting (at the end of August).

From the tone of comments from Chairman Bugg and Houston Commissioner Ryan, it sounds like they are ready to defund NHHIP. Public comment appears to be a necessary step before they can defund.

It was mentioned that $503 million has been spent over the last 15 years for project development.

My take: the project will be officially canceled unless there is a drastic change in circumstances in July, including FHWA clearance to resume work and the Harris County lawsuit dropped. I don't see either of those happening.

[jadebenn]

I feel bad for and sympathize with all the people who have worked on and supported this project for about a decade and a half, only to see it fall apart in the final stretch. I've been on that side of the battle with other projects. It's not a good feeling at all.

I do wish there was a way to redefine the project objectives without tearing up the whole EIS process and starting from scratch. Tastes and opinions have clearly changed since the project was originally approved, and it'd be nice if there was a better way to accommodate that than a process that's made this pretty much a "take it or leave it" decision.

[TXtoNJ]

Houston's never going to get out of its own way

[Anthony_JK]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

[kernals12]

I said it before and I'll say it again; transportation funding should be devolved to the state level.

[vdeane]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

I think it's safe to say that the ultimate goal of the Urbanists and the current administration in Washington is to do exactly that.

[jadebenn]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

I think it's safe to say that the ultimate goal of the Urbanists and the current administration in Washington is to do exactly that.

I doubt that. But unpopular opinion (here): The city would be better for it.

But honestly, I think a big issue with the project here was the messaging around it. It was sold as being another highway expansion, probably because people thought that would play better for public support. That might have been true in 2005 when this project started, but my personal take on public opinion now is that Houston's pretty burnt out on highway expansion projects. Most of them were sold as congestion-reducing measures, and while any traffic engineer knows that the throughput was what they were really after, that's not the impression the public got. So it's hard to get people excited for another big highway project when they feel like the past ones didn't actually help them out (incorrectly or otherwise).

But I think there was a missed opportunity to emphasize that this was more of a rerouting. You could've gotten some people onboard that are normally against this kind of project. But it felt like that was an afterthought (especially with how little of the Pierce was actually planned to be removed), so it didn't really help build a coalition like it could've.

[bwana39]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

I think it's safe to say that the ultimate goal of the Urbanists and the current administration in Washington is to do exactly that.

I doubt that. But unpopular opinion (here): The city would be better for it.

But honestly, I think a big issue with the project here was the messaging around it. It was sold as being another highway expansion, probably because people thought that would play better for public support. That might have been true in 2005 when this project started, but my personal take on public opinion now is that Houston's pretty burnt out on highway expansion projects. Most of them were sold as congestion-reducing measures, and while any traffic engineer knows that the throughput was what they were really after, that's not the impression the public got. So it's hard to get people excited for another big highway project when they feel like the past ones didn't actually help them out (incorrectly or otherwise).

But I think there was a missed opportunity to emphasize that this was more of a rerouting. You could've gotten some people onboard that are normally against this kind of project. But it felt like that was an afterthought (especially with how little of the Pierce was actually planned to be removed), so it didn't really help build a coalition like it could've.

The real contention is with the part North of the I-45 / I-10 Split. There was not a whole lot of opposition to the re-route around downtown and the Pierce Elevated removal. Most of the part of the near northside of downtown has already been purchased.

All of the Pierce elevated was to be removed. What you mean is how little of the existent I-45 was being removed. The original North Freeway downtown feeder / collector was to be left in place

[MaxConcrete]

It appears like FHWA is going to do whatever it takes to kill NHHIP. A letter in the agenda for next week's NCTCOG meeting says that FHWA is blocking approval of the entire statewide transportation improvement plan due to inclusion of a certain project. While the project is not named, it is almost surely NHHIP. See item 4.1
https://www.nctcog.org/nctcg/media/Transportation/Committees/RTC/2021/agenda-packet-jul.pdf?ext=.pdf

"It is our understanding that USDOT and TxDOT are at an impasse on approval of the Transportation Improvement Program in Texas.
...
Federal approval of the STIP has extended past the originally anticipated timeframe, and projects slated for FY 2021 and early FY 2022 implementation are being delayed.
...
Without STIP approval, agreements for these projects cannot be executed, nor can procurements be finalized. Approval is being delayed by a single project not in our region. Please help us expedite approval of the 2021-2024 STIP to enable these important projects to proceed to implementation."

Of course, this is very distressing to everyone around the state whose projects are delayed due to NHHIP.

This further suggests that NHHIP is going to be defunded in the 2022 UTP.

[Plutonic Panda]

Has something like that ever happened before? This is bloody ridiculous. I'm really starting to think their beef has absolutely nothing to do with the north section in particular just not wanting to widen a freeway at all including the downtown section. This is infuriating.

[TXtoNJ]

Has something like that ever happened before? This is bloody ridiculous. I'm really starting to think their beef has absolutely nothing to do with the north section in particular just not wanting to widen a freeway at all including the downtown section. This is infuriating.

Pete's trying to make a splash. He still wants to be president, after all.

[bwana39]

Cities: There are people in major US Cities especially New York, L.A., and Washington who never leave their cities. Their cities are an island. They have no idea how the city interacts with the rest of the world. All they can see is their city.

In the fifties, sixties, and seventies,  the leaders in the cities were people who had gotten higher education after WWI and WWII. These men in large portion had grown up dispersed through rural communities (small town and farms). They understood how the transportation grid affected the United States as a whole.  For a lot of the people who grew up in the cities and did not travel back to the rural areas, this was not the case. ( I knew a MSGT in the army who said he had never been out of NYC before he went to boot camp. He said he rarely had left Bed-Stuy for other parts of the City. The plains of Kansas and even rural Maryland were huge culture shocks.)

I can explain this concept with an illustration. I had a friend who was a city girl. She only bought cut up chicken pieces. Her reason was she was squeamish with a whole (grocery store) chicken because she could envision that it had been a living animal but not with the pieces. On the other hand, I have killed and cleaned chickens, squirrel, fish, frogs, pigs, deer, etc. To me it is not a big deal.  The point is two different perspectives of the same process. (Maybe I should have used the live or dressed chickens comparison?)

For these city residents, the city is more than just the center of their world, it is the entire world as their point of reference.

Then there is a perspective of what government is supposed to do. In discussion of the inner city connector in Shreveport, the topic actually centered more on what the same money invested in the community could / would do in the community not a particular objection to the freeway.  I also think we tend to think of ghettos in terms of squalor.  A ghetto is a place where people of a particular ethnicity, race, religious expression, or other common denominator live. At times, we think it is purely a function of economics or SES. That isn't universally or even generally true. When we think about the term "wealthy enclave" we don't think ghetto, but it is indeed a ghetto. put in or restrict to an isolated or segregated area or group..  Just like a wealthy enclave, many (perhaps most) minority enclaves exist because of choice.

As much as the people in the ghettos and other lower income communities scream about roads coming through "their" communities, the real issue they face (and when faced with it they will agree) is gentrification and the rent / purchase cost increases that comes with it.

[Thegeet]

It appears like FHWA is going to do whatever it takes to kill NHHIP. A letter in the agenda for next week's NCTCOG meeting says that FHWA is blocking approval of the entire statewide transportation improvement plan due to inclusion of a certain project. While the project is not named, it is almost surely NHHIP. See item 4.1
https://www.nctcog.org/nctcg/media/Transportation/Committees/RTC/2021/agenda-packet-jul.pdf?ext=.pdf

"It is our understanding that USDOT and TxDOT are at an impasse on approval of the Transportation Improvement Program in Texas.
...
Federal approval of the STIP has extended past the originally anticipated timeframe, and projects slated for FY 2021 and early FY 2022 implementation are being delayed.
...
Without STIP approval, agreements for these projects cannot be executed, nor can procurements be finalized. Approval is being delayed by a single project not in our region. Please help us expedite approval of the 2021-2024 STIP to enable these important projects to proceed to implementation."

Of course, this is very distressing to everyone around the state whose projects are delayed due to NHHIP.

This further suggests that NHHIP is going to be defunded in the 2022 UTP.

Are there any others projects that may suffer from this?

[MaxConcrete]

It appears like FHWA is going to do whatever it takes to kill NHHIP.

Are there any others projects that may suffer from this?

In the short term it appears that projects in DFW and elsewhere will be delayed until the approval is received.

The best-case scenario is that the impasse is resolved soon and only NHHIP is affected. But with the apparent new activist policy at FHWA, I am concerned that FHWA could start targeting other projects, such as the Interstate 30 work in Dallas. Or they may try to derail the Interstate 35 project in Austin, as it is still in the environmental study phase. It seems like any freeway project in an urban area could be at risk.

[sprjus4]

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

The FHWA shouldn't be swayed by what party is in charge, etc. but that's bureaucrats and DC for you.

[TXtoNJ]

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

[Plutonic Panda]

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

If that were the case wouldn't they support the commuters as there are much more of them?

[vdeane]

Has something like that ever happened before? This is bloody ridiculous. I'm really starting to think their beef has absolutely nothing to do with the north section in particular just not wanting to widen a freeway at all including the downtown section. This is infuriating.

The overall goal of the feds trying to kill a project that they don't like due to politics is not that different from the Trump administration doing all it could to stonewall the Gateway project and congestion pricing in NYC.  The latter even including withholding approval for a required EIS!

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

If that were the case wouldn't they support the commuters as there are much more of them?

The core voting block for the Democrats are those urban people who were mentioned that never leave their home cities and seldom even leave their neighborhood.  The entire underpinning of the freeway removal movement rests on an ideology that believes that the interests of anyone outside of the city (not metro area - the core city itself) the road passes through are not valid.

[Anthony_JK]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

I think it's safe to say that the ultimate goal of the Urbanists and the current administration in Washington is to do exactly that.

I doubt that. But unpopular opinion (here): The city would be better for it.

But honestly, I think a big issue with the project here was the messaging around it. It was sold as being another highway expansion, probably because people thought that would play better for public support. That might have been true in 2005 when this project started, but my personal take on public opinion now is that Houston's pretty burnt out on highway expansion projects. Most of them were sold as congestion-reducing measures, and while any traffic engineer knows that the throughput was what they were really after, that's not the impression the public got. So it's hard to get people excited for another big highway project when they feel like the past ones didn't actually help them out (incorrectly or otherwise).

But I think there was a missed opportunity to emphasize that this was more of a rerouting. You could've gotten some people onboard that are normally against this kind of project. But it felt like that was an afterthought (especially with how little of the Pierce was actually planned to be removed), so it didn't really help build a coalition like it could've.

The real contention is with the part North of the I-45 / I-10 Split. There was not a whole lot of opposition to the re-route around downtown and the Pierce Elevated removal. Most of the part of the near northside of downtown has already been purchased.

All of the Pierce elevated was to be removed. What you mean is how little of the existent I-45 was being removed. The original North Freeway downtown feeder / collector was to be left in place

If most of the opposition locally was to the mass displacements on I-45 north of I-10, as well as not enough emphasis on mass transit alternatives, then what does that say for H-GAC's and TXDOT's decision to withdraw the Hardy Toll Road extension to I-10/I-69/US 59?? That would have possibly mitigated plenty of the need for reconstructing that section. Also, there is the northeast quadrant of the Sam Houston Tollway between I-69 and I-10 that is essentially underutilized.

I'm guessing it's an issue of TxDOT underestimating local opposition to highways-only based transportation development and biting off more than they thought they could chew.

No, I don't think most local opponents of the NHHIP really do want to level every freeway inside 610, but there are plenty of New Urbanism advocates licking their chops about attempting to transform major US cities' transpo systems into the fantasies of Paris or Scandanavian systems. I'm an advocate of more balance through more use of rail and bus based transit, but not to the point of ripping down needed freeways that serve major areas.

[kernals12]

Welp....if that is the case, they need to keep the Allen Elevated open.

Unless, of course, the real plans of the New Urbanists now that they've tanked the NHHIP is to flatten every freeway inside of the I-610 loop and convert them all to surface boulevards and light rail corridors in order to "save the downtown".

I think it's safe to say that the ultimate goal of the Urbanists and the current administration in Washington is to do exactly that.

I doubt that. But unpopular opinion (here): The city would be better for it.

But honestly, I think a big issue with the project here was the messaging around it. It was sold as being another highway expansion, probably because people thought that would play better for public support. That might have been true in 2005 when this project started, but my personal take on public opinion now is that Houston's pretty burnt out on highway expansion projects. Most of them were sold as congestion-reducing measures, and while any traffic engineer knows that the throughput was what they were really after, that's not the impression the public got. So it's hard to get people excited for another big highway project when they feel like the past ones didn't actually help them out (incorrectly or otherwise).

But I think there was a missed opportunity to emphasize that this was more of a rerouting. You could've gotten some people onboard that are normally against this kind of project. But it felt like that was an afterthought (especially with how little of the Pierce was actually planned to be removed), so it didn't really help build a coalition like it could've.

The real contention is with the part North of the I-45 / I-10 Split. There was not a whole lot of opposition to the re-route around downtown and the Pierce Elevated removal. Most of the part of the near northside of downtown has already been purchased.

All of the Pierce elevated was to be removed. What you mean is how little of the existent I-45 was being removed. The original North Freeway downtown feeder / collector was to be left in place

If most of the opposition locally was to the mass displacements on I-45 north of I-10, as well as not enough emphasis on mass transit alternatives, then what does that say for H-GAC's and TXDOT's decision to withdraw the Hardy Toll Road extension to I-10/I-69/US 59?? That would have possibly mitigated plenty of the need for reconstructing that section. Also, there is the northeast quadrant of the Sam Houston Tollway between I-69 and I-10 that is essentially underutilized.

I'm guessing it's an issue of TxDOT underestimating local opposition to highways-only based transportation development and biting off more than they thought they could chew.

No, I don't think most local opponents of the NHHIP really do want to level every freeway inside 610, but there are plenty of New Urbanism advocates licking their chops about attempting to transform major US cities' transpo systems into the fantasies of Paris or Scandanavian systems. I'm an advocate of more balance through more use of rail and bus based transit, but not to the point of ripping down needed freeways that serve major areas.

HOT lanes are Bus Rapid Transit, it's just that they also allow car pools and single occupancy vehicles willing to pay a toll set to ensure free flowing traffic.

[TXtoNJ]

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

If that were the case wouldn't they support the commuters as there are much more of them?

The commuters directly impacted are not going to be the ones voting in future primaries of the party currently in Washington. The people inside the Loop are.

[Anthony_JK]

[...]

HOT lanes are Bus Rapid Transit, it's just that they also allow car pools and single occupancy vehicles willing to pay a toll set to ensure free flowing traffic.

Outside of the tollways and the Katy HOT lanes inside of I-10 in west Houston (and the newly built toll express lanes inside SH 288), most of the Houston system of bus/HOV lanes are not HOT, but free HOV/express lanes with access to Park-and-Ride and bus terminals. That's also the setup for all of I-45's HOV lanes.

[Plutonic Panda]

Has something like that ever happened before? This is bloody ridiculous. I'm really starting to think their beef has absolutely nothing to do with the north section in particular just not wanting to widen a freeway at all including the downtown section. This is infuriating.

The overall goal of the feds trying to kill a project that they don't like due to politics is not that different from the Trump administration doing all it could to stonewall the Gateway project and congestion pricing in NYC.  The latter even including withholding approval for a required EIS!

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

If that were the case wouldn't they support the commuters as there are much more of them?

The core voting block for the Democrats are those urban people who were mentioned that never leave their home cities and seldom even leave their neighborhood.  The entire underpinning of the freeway removal movement rests on an ideology that believes that the interests of anyone outside of the city (not metro area - the core city itself) the road passes through are not valid.

The NYC congestion pricing plan to convert free roads to tolled is complete bullshit and I hope never sees the light of the day. I don't really see that as a valid comparison.

I will say regarding the Gateway project I was very irritated with the Trump admin for blocking that and it seemed like nothing more than an intentional "punishment"  to the area. I was worried it would set a bad precedent and I did think about it.

[jadebenn]

What a joke, honestly. The current administration is so blind sighted to the necessity of the majority of these projects, and using straight up politics to get sorely needed improvements canceled in the name of activism and this unrealistic lifestyle without cars.

That's not why they're doing it though - it's paying off constituents who don't want the expansion, and punishing the (largely suburban and developer) opponents who do. Ideology is just the window dressing

If that were the case wouldn't they support the commuters as there are much more of them?

The commuters directly impacted are not going to be the ones voting in future primaries of the party currently in Washington. The people inside the Loop are.

I actually think you hit on something big here: IMO, this is all stemming from the wealth and political shifts of the past 20 years. It used to be that just about every American inner city was economically depressed compared to the surrounding suburbs. Apartments near downtown would be cheaper than homes further out. Very few people with the means to do so lived in these inner areas.

Then, around the 90s, crime starts dropping dramatically and suddenly all this inner city land skyrockets in value. It takes a while for the markets to catch on, but when they do, you see a bit of a reversal of the urban flight and gentrification of these areas (which actually sucks for the people who used to live there; now they're poor and have long commutes). What these more financially affluent (and therefore politically-powerful) residents and businesses end up doing is changing the composition of both parties to increasingly split around urban-rural lines. Ruralites lean one way, urbanites lean the other, and the suburbs are "neutral ground."

So, say this hypothetical urbanite-dominated party gains control of the federal government and its highway infrastructure. It wouldn't be surprising if they chose to prioritize one of the major parts of their coalition, at the expense of those on the fence and those against them, would it?

[MaxConcrete]

The proposed funding for NHHIP is available online. https://ftp.txdot.gov/pub/txdot/tpp/utp/north-houston-highway-improvement-project.pdf

This will all be moot if the project is canceled, but if the project survives then here are my observations of the funding

• Segment 3 (downtown): 2021 was $3.998 billion, 2022 proposed $4.265 billion. +267 million
• New funding of $296 million on Interstate 10 west of downtown (included in total)
• However, $765 million on Segment 3 is now unfunded. This appears to be a cost increase
• Segment 2 (IH-45 from IH-10 to Loop 610 including interchange): 2021: $840 million,  2022 proposed  $469 million. -371 million
• Segment 2 unfunded: $768 million.
• $405 million has been added to IH-69 south of IH-45. New total is $1.0 billion. This appears to be a cost increase
• In summary, they are shifting money out of Segment 2 and into the south end of segment 3. This is consistent with the longstanding plan to start at the south end and proceed northward. Also, the south end is the least controversial and the section from Spur 527 to SH 288 ($461 million) is a section of independent utility.