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Started by roadman65, October 03, 2013, 08:59:18 AM

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Rothman

Drove north out of Houston on I-45's HOV lane with my daughter.  People have evidently figured out there is no enforcement of it whatsoever.

I-610 made me question the accolades TX highways get on this forum.  Sure, having space for frontage roads is nice, but I-610 has some serious issues (e.g., westbound at I-45 on the north side, where it narrows to two lanes and a whole host of merges too close together causing some of the worst weaving issues in the country -- have to move over two lanes to get onto the route you want while other are exiting over two lanes...).

Have no idea what the solution to the traffic problems in Houston is.  Their lack of transit is legendary, but not sure how it would even help given the low-density sprawl.

Wasn't my first trip to Houston, but I was struck more by its sheer ugliness this time around.  As one of my staffers said, who had lived in the area: "People there call it God's Country.  Right, god-awful."
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.


MaxConcrete

Quote from: Rothman on October 18, 2024, 09:07:50 AMDrove north out of Houston on I-45's HOV lane with my daughter.  People have evidently figured out there is no enforcement of it whatsoever.

I-610 made me question the accolades TX highways get on this forum.  Sure, having space for frontage roads is nice, but I-610 has some serious issues (e.g., westbound at I-45 on the north side, where it narrows to two lanes and a whole host of merges too close together causing some of the worst weaving issues in the country -- have to move over two lanes to get onto the route you want while other are exiting over two lanes...).

Have no idea what the solution to the traffic problems in Houston is.  Their lack of transit is legendary, but not sure how it would even help given the low-density sprawl.

Wasn't my first trip to Houston, but I was struck more by its sheer ugliness this time around.  As one of my staffers said, who had lived in the area: "People there call it God's Country.  Right, god-awful."

Many of the problems at Loop 610 and I-45 (North Freeway) are due to the poor design of the antiquated (1962) interchange. This interchange will be rebuilt into a five-level design, with frontage roads going through, as part of NHHIP. This will help the situation, but won't solve all the problems because Loop 610 needs another lane in each direction between I-45 and US 290. Unfortunately the interchange work is scheduled to start in 2032 and be completed in 2036.

Yes, Houston is ugly. Interstate 45 through Houston is a showcase of Houston's ugliness, and the North Freeway is probably the most ugly corridor in town. Houston's visual landscape doesn't bother me. Established residents never seem to complain. The only complaints I ever hear are from newcomers who are shocked by the visual landscape.  People looking for a scenic landscape don't consider living in Houston, and the folks who are here don't mind.

It sounds like you didn't visit any of the nicer suburban areas, like Sugar Land, Memorial, Katy (Cinco Ranch), Bridgeland, Woodlands, Kingwood or Pearland.
www.DFWFreeways.com
www.HoustonFreeways.com

Chris

Is Houston's sprawl that different from other Texas cities, or other sunbelt cities that developed mostly after 1950?

The consistent implementation of frontage roads (including those billboards) is different from other states. Frontage roads have also improved in capacity and connectivity in the past 20 years, making them one-way and continuous through interchanges, across rivers and across railroads. This is where the 5 level stack interchange design was developed for.

I've read a statistic some years ago that Texas was actually the state that has issued the largest amount of annual apartment building permits in the United States.

Rothman

Traffic lights need to be removed on TX 21/71 between Austin and Bastrop.  And then will come another corridor of perpetual widening.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Plutonic Panda

I love Houston. I don't think it's ugly at all. But that's just me.

Rothman

Quote from: Plutonic Panda on October 21, 2024, 02:44:04 AMI love Houston. I don't think it's ugly at all. But that's just me.

Well, the skyscrapers are nice.  But, if one finds the surrounding area aesthetic it certainly galvanizes the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

Bobby5280

One of the biggest traffic-related problems in Houston is the very antiquated design of surface streets throughout so much of the metro area. I've complained about this numerous times before, but it is indeed the root of many problems. That especially goes for the interface between Houston's surface street grid and the freeways.

It really does suck to be in a traffic jam on I-45 at just weird times of day -like after friggin' midnight even. But it's every bit as frustrating an experience to be stuck in traffic on a normal city street and take 20-30 minutes just to travel less than a mile. That's all thanks to LOTS and LOTS of damned traffic signals. There is often no limits or controls on how many driveways and side streets can connect to a main arterial.

When you get out on the fringes of the Houston metro, in areas often built after 1990 or 2000, the street network finally gets more modern. Traffic signals are finally spaced farther apart. There are fewer access points to the main streets, allowing the higher volumes of traffic to continuously flow more efficiently.

It would probably be pretty challenging and even politically controversial for a lot of surface streets in Houston to be re-designed where many driveways and side streets get cut-off from the main thoroughfares. They need to look at removing traffic signals in some places that way the remaining traffic signals are spaced farther apart. They could grade-separate some intersections. They could barrier-separate others and have RIRO turns from the side streets. The dumb, totally uncontrolled grid currently in place just sucks. It's so lousy it actually helps cause traffic jams on the freeways. Exiting traffic backs up into the main lanes of the freeway.

Hopefully the re-built I-610/I-45 interchange delivers some improvement. But they gotta make changes on the surface level to really makes things more efficient.

TXtoNJ

Car dealers, suburban developers, construction companies who only know how to do a few things and don't feel like spending the money to learn how to do more, gas station owners, and the iron-fisted control these groups have over the local political landscape are why Houston looks the way it does, and why that won't be changing any time soon.

J N Winkler

For the December 2024 letting, TxDOT has advertised a major guide sign replacement for Houston.  The plans set runs to over 700 sheets (very unusual for a contract that covers just signs) and calls for work on multiple freeways, including I-610, I-10, and I-69.

It appears that as part of this project, TxDOT is seeking to phase out the arrow-block diagrammatics that have been used for decades in the Houston district but not, AFAIK, anywhere else in Texas.  "Existing sign to be removed by contractor" (with no designated replacement) is used throughout for this type.

"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

CtrlAltDel

Interestingly, I was asked by TxDOT to take part in a travel survey for my local area.



I thought they would ask mostly general things, but they wanted me to list everywhere I went for an entire day. They would have preferred that I download an app, but I demurred on that.
I-290   I-294   I-55   (I-74)   (I-72)   I-40   I-30   US-59   US-190   TX-30   TX-6

webny99

This is off-subject but I didn't see a better thread to ask.. are there any active expansion plans for TX 45, and what is the outlook for the western side ever being completed to finish a full beltway of Austin?

Echostatic

There are currently no plans to expand the existing sections of SH 45. Hays County is starting the funding process for the southern link between FM 1626 and I-35 (the "SH 45 Gap") and a feasibility study is underway. Travis County opposes that construction however, and about a third of the route will be in Travis so I'm sure there will be lawsuits on the way (in fact I believe one was filed a few months ago over some dispute.)

The western side will never ever be completed. There's too much development in the way now, that's the corner of the city with the most stringent environmental regulations, and the locals would throw an absolute fit if anyone so much as proposed a study of the corridor. RM 620 is getting some upgrades, though mostly in the form of widening the existing surface road from 2x2 to 3x3. The northernmost sections, just west of the current end of SH 45 North, are getting a few overpasses.

ATX —> MPLS. Travelled many roads, in part and in full.

roadman65

Was noticing that the other Corpus Christi Ship Channel Bridge got imploded in 2007 because of costs to repair it.

When going through satellite imagery I noticed the bridge gone. So I researched it. Found it was demolished in 2007.

I drove across it in 1997 and noticed it had a rail line with Navigation Boulevard that used to cross with it.

Apparently the US 181/ SH 35 bridge is the only crossing now.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

Bobby5280

Quote from: EchostaticThere are currently no plans to expand the existing sections of SH 45. Hays County is starting the funding process for the southern link between FM 1626 and I-35 (the "SH 45 Gap") and a feasibility study is underway. Travis County opposes that construction however, and about a third of the route will be in Travis so I'm sure there will be lawsuits on the way (in fact I believe one was filed a few months ago over some dispute.)

TX-45 will never be a full loop around Austin. But, yeah, I think odds are very likely the Southern gap between FM-1626 and I-35 will be filled. There are few (if any) existing structures along the proposed path.

Once that gap is filled, I do believe it will put more pressure on extending the super highway NW to the FM-1826 intersection. There is plenty room between the existing frontage roads.

The US-290 freeway is planned to be extended about 11 miles from the Circle Drive Y to the East edge of Dripping Springs. Once that project is completed it will create more motivation to extend TX-45 about 3.5 miles NW to dovetail into US-290. There are long range freeway plan maps for the Austin metro that show TX-45 being extended to US-290. I'm sure there will be court battles. But they'll be like the ones fought over US-290 expansion in the Oak Hill area. Eventually people concede that something has to be done about the traffic. In the long run TX-45 could serve as part an East-West bypass for thru traffic to skirt Austin to the South. I do think the US-290 freeway will eventually be extended West to the US-281 corridor. Getting thru or around Dripping Springs won't be easy though.

sprjus4

Quote from: roadman65 on December 16, 2024, 08:05:18 AMWas noticing that the other Corpus Christi Ship Channel Bridge got imploded in 2007 because of costs to repair it.

When going through satellite imagery I noticed the bridge gone. So I researched it. Found it was demolished in 2007.

I drove across it in 1997 and noticed it had a rail line with Navigation Boulevard that used to cross with it.

Apparently the US 181/ SH 35 bridge is the only crossing now.

In order to replace the function of the bridge, which was bringing in trucks and port traffic from the I-37 corridor, they built the Joe Fulton Corridor, a roadway that extends approximately 7.5 miles west of that old bridge location, connecting back with I-37 further west. It doesn't cross the channel, however, with the channel ending before that. It is a 60 mph two lane road with a long sweeping flyover from I-37 South.

I'm guessing they did that in order to save on the costs of building a new bridge, and also to allow further growth further into the channel without having any additional height or width restrictions besides the channel itself.

The new Harbor Bridge will almost double the vertical clearance into the channel as well.

Bobby5280

Despite the loss of that one rail/auto combo bridge in the Corpus Christi harbor they've really expanded port operations on the North side of the ship channel. The area where the bridge used to be is now a complex rail car siding. It's part of a larger rail yard that has been built several years ago.

wxfree

The TTC will consider an agenda item (the meetings are basically a formality and almost all agenda items are passed) that will remove the letter suffix rule from business route designations.  The text of the minute order is not yet available, but I'll be interested to see it.  I want to know whether the designations will remain unique and if so, how.  I'm assuming existing suffixes will be removed, to keep them consistent.  It's item 6 in the agenda for January.  If you check back, probably Monday or Tuesday, there will be links to the proposed documents.  They no longer do it the easy way, putting all of the files in a public ftp system, so you have to download the PDF again and the links are in there.  I'll make comments here if I find it interesting, which I likely will.

https://www.txdot.gov/about/leadership/texas-transportation-commission/meeting-dates-agendas.html
I'd like to buy a vowel, Alex.  What is E?

thisdj78

Quote from: Rothman on October 19, 2024, 01:00:59 AMTraffic lights need to be removed on TX 21/71 between Austin and Bastrop.  And then will come another corridor of perpetual widening.

The last remaining stop lights between Bastrop and Austin are in progress of being replaced with overpasses. I believe they are in the early phase of utility relocation.

Rothman

#268
Quote from: thisdj78 on January 23, 2025, 03:13:05 PM
Quote from: Rothman on October 19, 2024, 01:00:59 AMTraffic lights need to be removed on TX 21/71 between Austin and Bastrop.  And then will come another corridor of perpetual widening.

The last remaining stop lights between Bastrop and Austin are in progress of being replaced with overpasses. I believe they are in the early phase of utility relocation.

The Tucker Hill Lane overpass is on schedule?  Wouldn't have thought that.

Wait a minute.  FM 1209 won't be done until 2030...
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

wxfree

Quote from: wxfree on January 23, 2025, 02:05:21 PMThe TTC will consider an agenda item (the meetings are basically a formality and almost all agenda items are passed) that will remove the letter suffix rule from business route designations.  The text of the minute order is not yet available, but I'll be interested to see it.  I want to know whether the designations will remain unique and if so, how.  I'm assuming existing suffixes will be removed, to keep them consistent.  It's item 6 in the agenda for January.  If you check back, probably Monday or Tuesday, there will be links to the proposed documents.  They no longer do it the easy way, putting all of the files in a public ftp system, so you have to download the PDF again and the links are in there.  I'll make comments here if I find it interesting, which I likely will.

https://www.txdot.gov/about/leadership/texas-transportation-commission/meeting-dates-agendas.html

I've read the minute order.  It looks like the designations will no longer be unique.  There's no other provision for identifying them, so I assume they'll be identified based on the location (BU 420 in Skunkweed).  The existing business routes will keep their letters until the designation is amended to remove them, but new designations will have no letters.

https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/docs/commission/2025/0130/6.pdf
I'd like to buy a vowel, Alex.  What is E?

bwana39

Quote from: Chris on October 18, 2024, 05:09:39 PMIs Houston's sprawl that different from other Texas cities, or other sunbelt cities that developed mostly after 1950?



Yes!

Into the 00's there was no zoning in Houston.
Let's build what we need as economically as possible.

sprjus4

#271
TxDOT is getting ready to begin construction on widening SH-286 near Corpus Christi from a two lane undivided road to a four lane freeway with frontage roads between FM-43 (Weber Rd) and FM-2444 (Staples St). This will extend the Crosstown Expressway approximately 2.5 miles south of its current terminus.

The area along Staples St going into the southern part of Corpus Christi has experienced a significant amount of growth over the past decade or so and much more to come. FM-2444 (Staples St) was widened from a 2 lane road to a 4-5 lane highway between SH-286 and Yorktown Blvd around 7 years ago. Traffic has significantly increased along SH-286 over the years, and this will accommodate that growth.

The $80 million project will begin next week (February 3, 2025) and is scheduled for completion in 2028.

https://www.txdot.gov/projects/projects-studies/corpus-christi/sh286-from-fm43-to-fm2444.html

Approximate Project Location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/y8rvuB8PW6pxAr41A?g_st=ic

Schematics: https://ftp.txdot.gov/pub/txdot/get-involved/crp/sh-286-fm-43-fm2444/project-location-map.pdf

https://x.com/txdot_corpus/status/1885431362829652272?s=46&t=vBXfR-rK6AmD--h4t8sQCA

Bobby5280

They won't be able to extend that freeway much farther South than Staples St before they'll end up having to make it turn West toward Bishop or Kingsville. About 5 miles South of the FM-2444 intersection the land starts transitioning from solid soil to wetlands and swamp.

sprjus4

Quote from: Bobby5280 on January 31, 2025, 08:33:28 PMThey won't be able to extend that freeway much farther South than Staples St before they'll end up having to make it turn West toward Bishop or Kingsville. About 5 miles South of the FM-2444 intersection the land starts transitioning from solid soil to wetlands and swamp.
The plan south of FM-2444 is to widen the remainder of SH-286 south to Chapman Ranch, and all of FM-70 (21 miles) from SH-286 to US-77 / Future I-69E to a three lane road - a single lane in each direction with an alternating passing lane every few miles.

There's certainly a good bit of traffic that uses that route today to access US-77 South, but I don't think it warrants anything beyond the proposed passing lane configuration.

Project Website: https://www.txdot.gov/projects/hearings-meetings/corpus-christi/archive/fm-70-sh-286-passing-lanes-draft-ea.html

SH-44 to US-77 (virtually all freeway), in my mind, remains the primary route from the core of the city, with this southern "shortcut" being for the south side of the city.



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